tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43052195298790191302017-09-24T18:40:45.399+10:00SNOW OFF THE BENNeil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.comBlogger361125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-51546097190623704292017-09-17T16:55:00.000+10:002017-09-17T17:11:27.868+10:00DIVORCE<span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" /></span> <br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">DIVORCE</span></span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">(See Westminster Confession of faith chapter 24 paras 5 &amp; 6)</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Introduction</span></span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Charles Hodge has defined a covenant as a promise suspended upon a condition. Marriage is a <i>conditional promise</i>. Therefore marriage, by definition, is a covenant. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Bible has a great deal to say about covenants. Indeed God never relates to man unless by way of covenant. God covenanted with man as represented by Adam upon man’s creation. But Adam, mankind’s federal head, broke the conditions of the covenant, i.e., the Covenant of Works, and that is why the world is in the mess it is in today!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m4wlvisGPVA/Wb4bQzdCb4I/AAAAAAAABvw/RIx2HtvQp_kCEiIWDaQeGifOnA6VfxZgwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_7520%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m4wlvisGPVA/Wb4bQzdCb4I/AAAAAAAABvw/RIx2HtvQp_kCEiIWDaQeGifOnA6VfxZgwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_7520%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Sin entered the world when Adam disobeyed the conditions of the <i>creational </i>covenant. Man separated from God in order to covenant instead, i.e., to have an illicit affair, with the devil. Thus mankind became and is dead in its trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1; 5). But the LORD God is most gracious. Indeed He entered the Garden to seek man who sought separation from Him. However, because mankind, in Adam, had wilfully deserted Him, God had grounds to divorce all of mankind. But God is gracious, for instead He announced that He was going to bring about reconciliation.&nbsp;</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">However, He did declare that in the process of this <i>promised</i> reconciliation mankind would be separated into two opposing camps. There would be a section of mankind that would remain opposed to God, on account of being united or joined to, and remaining one with the devil. These would therefore receive the penalty for breaking the covenant. That penalty is, of course, everlasting <i>divorce</i> from God – i.e., everlasting death. And there would be another section of mankind (a multitude innumerable, Revelation 7:9) that would be rescued from the devil’s embrace and be reconciled to God. To be reconciled to God is to receive everlasting life.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We see the first announcement of God’s promise to divorce a portion of mankind and reconcile another portion in the words He spoke to the serpent directly after the Fall of man: “And I will put <u>enmity</u>between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” Genesis 3:15.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">This helps us to understand what the separation of the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares etc. on the last day (i.e., the Day of Judgment) is all about. There are those who belong to the fallen house of the devil. They are the “seed of the serpent” – i.e., the devil’s “offspring”, mentioned in Genesis 3:15. And there are those belonging to house of the “Seed of the Woman” – the Lord Jesus Christ. These are God’s adopted “offspring”, and will be wed to His Son, Jesus Christ. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">In the following we are looking in particular at marital divorce. And already we have seen that marital divorce has come about because of sin. If Adam had not sinned as our covenant representative, then there would be no such thing as marital divorce. But now we live in a fallen world. Therefore there is enmity between people, sometimes even between husbands and their own wives. Sometimes this enmity will lead to marital divorce.</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Divorce Concession</span></span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Marriage was ordained by God. But God never ordained divorce. In fact we read in Malachi 2:14b-16 that God hates divorce! In the process of rebuking His people’s unfaithfulness to Him He says: “[T]he LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. For <u>the LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce</u>, for it covers one’s garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Notice at least four obvious things mentioned in these verses:&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">1.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 7pt; margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The LORD God is <i>witness</i> in marriage.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">2.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 7pt; margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">A man’s wife is his companion by way of <i>covenant</i>.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">3.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 7pt; margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">A man and his wife are <i>one</i> in the marriage covenant.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 72px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">4.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 7pt; margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The LORD God <i>hates</i> divorce.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">I would like us to focus on the fourth point, but first reflect a little on the first three points by acknowledging the fact that there is a <i>spiritual</i>, i.e., a moral, and a <i>legal</i>, and a <i>physical</i>element to marriage. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">God witnesses the actions between a husband and his wife. God holds both accountable to their marital oaths and vows. Should one deal treacherously or unfaithfully with the other, God sees it – He witnesses it. Therefore marriage has a <i>spiritual</i> or <i>moral </i>dimension to it in that God is watching the couple’s behaviour. The knowledge that God is watching ought to encourage married couples to behave towards their respective spouses in a God-honouring fashion. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Also, because marriage is a covenant there is also a <i>legal</i> aspect to it. The husband and wife had covenanted, i.e., made a <i>conditional promise</i> to each other. “Till death us do part” was the old way of saying it. Only the death of one or both partners should dissolve the union. The Reformed Book of Common Order puts it this way: <i>“You have taken each other in the sight of God, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in health and in sickness, to love, cherish, and honour, so long as you both shall live.”</i></span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, marital oaths or promises have been sworn to each other. And vows have been made to God. Therefore, those oaths and vows are morally and legally binding. Which is to say that a husband can hold the wife to them, and vice versa.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Also, there is the <i>physical</i> dimension to marriage. The marriage covenant has made the two one in God’s sight. The sex act is the outward physical expression that the two have become one flesh. However, the sex act is more than simply a physical action. It is an engaging of the very essence of the man with the very essence of the woman. In other words, the entire man, body, soul, spirit, mind, emotions etc., in the sex act becomes one with the entire or complete body, soul, spirit etc. of the woman. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Viewed this way it is easy to see why God forbids all sex outside of marriage. For sex beyond the pale of marriage defiles the body God has given us. Which is to say that it defiles the <i>whole</i> man as surely as poison affects the whole man. The Apostle Paul puts it graphically in 1 Corinthians 6:15&amp;16: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For <i>‘the two</i>,<i>’ </i>He says, <i>‘shall become one flesh.’</i>”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So we’ve seen then that marriage has <i>spiritual</i>or moral, <i>legal</i>, and <i>physical</i> aspects to it. Likewise God’s covenant with man has at least these three aspects to it. For God held Adam (our representative) responsible for all of his actions in the creation covenant. And we see from even a surface reading of the Malachi 2:14-16 passage (quoted above) that the LORD God holds marriage partners responsible for all of their actions in the marriage covenant.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, we’ve noted that the LORD God hates divorce. So, if the LORD God hates divorce, why then does He permit it? The LORD God has given the divorce concession because of sin. We’ve seen already that the LORD God Himself is planning to finally divorce from Himself the “seed of the serpent” (a.k.a. as the “goats” and the “tares”) on Judgment Day.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">God is divorcing them, not on a whim, but because of their sin, their spiritual adultery. He has witnessed them break His covenant. Does God have any pleasure in divorcing a portion on mankind? No! The LORD God hates divorce – and so should we. This was the teaching of Jesus when He walked upon this earth. This is why the Pharisees, who are representative of the legalist heart in every man, had a question for Jesus.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We see them test Jesus on the question of marital divorce in Matthew 19:3f.: “The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?’” Notice the word “lawful”, “Is it lawful?” The Pharisees cared only about the legalities of a thing. This alerts us to the fact that they had missed, wider than a long Scot’s mile, the <i>grace</i> of divorce! You know the old adage, <i>“Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile”</i>? That’s the way it was for these Pharisees.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Jesus set the record straight with them: “And He answered them and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning <i>‘made them male and female,’ </i>and said, <i>‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’</i>? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” Matthew 19:4-6. Jesus pointed these “seed of the serpent” to the Scriptures – just as He did with their father the devil in the wilderness. They had the Scriptures, the Word of God. The Scriptures witnessed or testified against them.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">God had made the man and his wife one flesh – something wonderful! And these men were only interested in how many ways a man could legally divorce his wife! Not being satisfied with His answer: “They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?’ He said to them, ‘Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery’” Matthew 19:7-9.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Don’t miss the point of what Jesus is saying here. The Pharisees are alleging that God instituted divorce. Whereas Jesus is telling them that it wasn’t God, but sinful man, who instituted divorce. Which is another way of saying that God ordained marriage, but <i>conceded</i>divorce because of the hardness of man’s sinful heart. In other words, marital divorce is an act of <i>grace</i> on God’s part. And it is for the protection of the innocent party. But sinful man, as represented by the Pharisees, has taken the grace of God and now uses it as a licence to sin. For that’s what divorce without sufficient cause is – it’s sin!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, we’ve looked then at <i>the divorce concession</i>, and we’ve seen that it is an act of grace on God’s part. God permits divorce to protect the innocent party in a marital relationship.</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Divorce Case</span></span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Pharisees claimed that Moses commanded that if a man at a mere whim wanted to put away his wife all he had to do was give a certificate of divorce. We see Jesus deal with this wanton Scripture-twisting in His Sermon on the Mount as found in Matthew 5:31&amp;32. In Matthew 5:31 Jesus says, “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, before we consider when a divorce case is truly a divorce case, let’s consider the context of what Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:31&amp;32. Jesus has already corrected the Pharisees faulty view of the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment in Matthew 5:27f.: “You have heard it said to those of old, <i>‘You shall not commit adultery.’</i> But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” So let’s note the important connection Jesus is making between breaking the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment – “You shall not commit adultery” and marital divorce – which He goes on to deal with. Adultery begins in the heart. For Jesus says in Matthew 15:19&amp;20, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, <u>adulteries, fornications</u>, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which <u>defile</u> a man…” </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Nigel Lee shows us something of the depth of what Christ, in His Sermon on the Mount, is saying about adultery: <i>“For ‘THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY!’ always meant and still means that <u>every man</u>or woman <u>who gazes at a woman</u> or man <u>for the purpose of lusting </u>after him or <u>her, has already defiled</u> him or <u>her in his</u> or her <u>heart</u>!”</i>(Francis Nigel Lee, “Mount Sinai &amp; the Sermon on the Mount”). Notice that adultery in the heart defiles also the person being lusted after!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">After mentioning adultery Jesus immediately goes on to say that if your right eye or your right hand causes you to sin (including even committing adultery in the heart), it is better to lose that eye or hand than have your whole body cast into hell. In other words, Jesus is reminding them and us how terrible it is to lose a part of your own body. But even so it is better to lose just a part of you than to have the whole of you cast into hell-fire.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Don’t miss the connection between this and Christ’s comments on divorce that follow. In marriage, a couple is no longer two but now are one flesh. Therefore to consider divorcing your spouse is akin to considering plucking out your own eye or cutting off your own hand! It needs to be given very, very careful consideration, if considered at all. In other words, marital divorce should be no light and easy thing. It’s not just a question of giving your spouse a piece of paper. It’s a matter of life and death, Heaven and Hell! For you, i.e., the <i>innocent</i> party, would be casting that part of your flesh away and discarding it.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, having demonstrated the seriousness of transgressing the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment, Jesus then tackles head-on the question of marital divorce in Matthew 5:31&amp;32: “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Pharisees were on about giving certificates of divorce. But Jesus was on about giving grace! In other words, don’t issue a certificate of divorce for any old thing. Make sure it’s for the right reason – i.e., make sure that <i>you </i>are the innocent party. Otherwise, you may be encouraging her to become an adulteress by giving her an illegitimate or unlawful divorce. For, were she to remarry without being legitimately divorced (i.e., in God’s eyes), you would be placing her in an adulterous situation.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">A case for divorce can be made only on the grounds of adultery or wilful desertion that can in no way be remedied by church or civil magistrate. We read at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel that when Joseph discovered that his fiancée, Mary, was with Child, he had it in mind to put her away: “Now the birth of Jesus is as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they had come together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly” Matthew 1:18&amp;19.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So we see that Joseph had concluded that the woman with whom he had covenanted to marry must have become pregnant to another man, i.e., had committed fornication which is forbidden under the “Adultery Commandment”, i.e., the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment. However, we know that the angel of the Lord explained to Joseph what actually had happened. However, the point being that we see that this just man had wanted to put away Mary quietly. Therefore we see that sexual immorality and adultery being detected after a contract is entered into, but before marriage, is grounds for the innocent party to dissolve that contract. And, as we’ve already seen, it’s the same for the innocent party after marriage. And when legitimately divorced he or she is free to marry another as if the offending party were dead.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, we need to revisit, for a moment, the Pharisee’s question to Jesus regarding Moses and the giving of the certificate of divorce. The Pharisees probably had Deuteronomy 24:1-4 in mind, which speaks of writing a woman a certificate of divorce if the man has found some “uncleanness” in her. The legalistic and graceless Pharisees focused only on the giving of the certificate, and not on the <i>reasons</i> for giving the certificate, i.e., as intended by Moses. In other words, divorce wasn’t simply a question of making sure you gave your unwanted spouse a bit of paper. Rather it was making sure that you had <i>proper</i> grounds for divorce. Thus the certificate of divorce was to protect the <i>innocent</i> party, which is to say that divorce was not to be whimsical – but only upon just cause. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Jesus closed the Pharisaic loophole in Matthew 5:32 by spelling out that divorce may only be given in cases of fornication, i.e., sexual immorality. Though sexual immorality includes adultery, it has a far broader scope. Were adultery the <i>only</i> grounds for divorce then the certificate of divorce Moses spoke of was a death warrant. For death is the maximum penalty for adultery. However, the Deuteronomy 24:1-4 passage assumes that the divorced woman will remarry. Therefore, the “uncleanness” found in her must be broader meaning than adultery as commonly understood today.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Notice Jesus says in Matthew 5:32 that “…whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery…” He’s saying that divorce for an illegitimate reason <i>causes</i>her to commit adultery. Therefore Jesus is presuming that the divorced woman will remarry once divorced. He is not saying that she has <i>already</i>committed adultery, but will be <i>caused</i> to commit adultery if she is divorced for reasons other than sexual immorality. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, the certificate of divorce Moses mentions in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 was given for the prevention of adultery occurring when sinful men dump their wives for no legitimate reason. Therefore the certificate of divorce is an act of God’s grace. The command was given by Moses to prevent divorce and not to secure it – as the Pharisees erroneously held. So, a case for divorce can only be made for reasons of sexual immorality. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">What is included in sexual immorality? The New Testament Greek word is <i>pornea </i>– usually translated as fornication. Now, this is where we really need to be careful, otherwise we may end up like the Pharisees Jesus did battle with. The wicked hearts of men are apt to look for all sorts of reasons how to put asunder what God has joined together in marriage!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, the NIV uses the words <i>marital unfaithfulness</i> to translate the New Testament Greek word <i>pornea</i>. This is helpful because the two become one flesh in marriage – of which sexual union is its physical expression (not to mention the spiritual and the legal aspects). </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Keep in mind that the fornication or the sexual immorality or the marital unfaithfulness Jesus is speaking of is in the context of marriage and divorce. It means that at least one member is being unfaithful to the marriage covenant. In other words, it means that the person is breaking his or her marital vows. To be sure, marital unfaithfulness is generally of a sexual nature. But we have already noted that the marital union is spiritual or moral, legal, and physical. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Therefore, although adultery is included, the word <i>pornea </i>encompasses a far broader spectrum. It has to do with <i>“unchasteness and is a general word for various kinds of sexual immorality and other perverse rebellion…”</i> (Francis Nigel Lee, footnote 123, “Mount Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount”).</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:15 demonstrates that wilful desertion leaves the innocent party an option of divorce. He is, of course, speaking here of an <i>unbelieving</i> spouse wilfully deserting a <i>believing</i>spouse. And every channel of reconciliation would need to be exhausted <i>before</i>divorce was sought. But the point is that if your spouse has deserted the marriage then you have no marriage. Therefore such <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wilful</i>desertion is a form of marital unfaithfulness. It certainly deprives the innocent spouse of the affection he or she is due, including sexual affection. So, I don’t think we’re twisting things to state that marital unfaithfulness may also include depriving your spouse of your body without his or her consent, (1 Corinthians 7:4&amp;5).</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Therefore, viewed in this way we may (with caution) include wilful desertion under marital unfaithfulness. If “Thou shalt not commit adultery” put positively means, “Be pure and loyal”, then surely it has also to do with <i>sexual</i> purity and <i>sexual</i> loyalty. But we understand that the New Testament Greek word <i>pornea</i> ordinarily refers to sexual disloyalty involving a <i>third</i> party.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">In summary, we are stating that God hates divorce, but permits it because of the hardness of men’s hearts. He permits it only in the case of adultery, or more broadly, marital unfaithfulness, or such deliberate desertion that neither the church nor the civil authority can resolve.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Christian couples are not to divorce. However, this is not to say that separation for a time may not be appropriate. But it is to say that Christian couples whose marriages are in trouble are always to seek reconciliation. For is reconciliation not what the Gospel of Christ is all about?</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Conclusion</span></span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We know that Christians sometimes develop marital troubles like everyone else. Therefore the following quote of Rowland Ward may be helpful. It pertains to wilful desertion by a non-Christian spouse: <i>“Thus we conclude that wilful desertion by an unbeliever after the spouse has become a believer with the intent the desertion be final allows the formal termination of the marriage. This being so remarriage is possible for the one deserted. </i></span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“The principle of 1 Corinthians 7:15 would seem capable of extension to cases of wilful and permanent desertion in situations not precisely of the kind noted by Paul, for example by a professing Christian who deserts a spouse (and repudiates thereby his or her own Christian profession) or such cases of cruelty that there is a virtual repudiation of the marriage vows. </span></span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“But one should always approach marriage on the basis that there is no easy way out, that vows are to be kept and that work and effort is needed to build and strengthen any relationship. The Bible does not approve divorce; in fact God hates it (Mal. 2:16) but He does allow it as a means of controlling one of the evils sin has brought.” </span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">(The Westminster Confession of Faith For the Church Today”, pgs. 175 &amp; 176).</span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-80157259242404435502017-09-13T17:07:00.000+10:002017-09-13T17:08:59.249+10:00MARRIAGE<br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">MARRIAGE</span></span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">(See Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 24 paras 1-4)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref31"></a><span style="margin: 0px;">[xxxi]</span></span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Introduction</span></span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">It’s claimed that chimpanzees are genetically 98% the same as human beings. In our day when men are marrying men, and women women, what’s to stop a man marrying a chimp?</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Marriage seems to be on the rocks at the moment. As the Theory of Evolution is more and more rammed down the throats of each successive generation at school, is it any wonder that the marriage manual is being rewritten? If the universe got here, not by God but by accident, as children at State schools are now being taught, then there is no rhyme or reason to it. Take this belief system to its logical conclusion and why shouldn’t a man take a monkey in marriage? A monkey can be great little helper about the house!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">If you believe that the universe is simply the result of random processes, if you believe in the evolutionary marriage of time and chance, then marriage is whatever you want it to be. Therefore, for you, same sex marriages are okay – not to mention man and monkey marriages.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But, the universe <i>does</i> have a purpose. And every aspect of man – spirit/soul/body, including our adenoids and our appendix etc. – has a purpose. The purpose, the chief end of man, i.e., the <i>whole </i>and <i>complete</i> man, is to wholly and completely glorify God and enjoy Him forever.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">At the very beginning, when God, in six days, formed the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that is in them, He gave man a purpose and a duty to fulfil. In Genesis 1:26-28 we read: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” This is the Cultural Mandate. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The aspect of the Cultural Mandate we’re looking at in the following is called Marriage.</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Marital Restrictions</span></span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Part of the clear instructions God gave to man in the beginning was the command to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.” Multiplying and filling the earth has to do with replicating the image of God. God made man in His own image. Man is to spread the image of God throughout all the earth.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">How does man do this? Well, regardless of how amazing it is what they can do nowadays in a petri dish in the science lab, it takes a man and a woman to come together <i>sexually</i> before replication can occur. This is the way God designed it from the beginning. A man and a man cannot produce an offspring the way God designed it. And neither can a woman and a woman, nor a man and a monkey for that matter. It takes one man and one woman to reproduce. Therefore, a marriage will not progress into a family unless the marriage consists of one man and one woman. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, let’s not confuse a marriage with a family. A family is an outworking of a marriage. But a marriage is still a marriage even when there are no children. Take Adam and Eve as the prime example. Adam was created first, and then Eve. In Genesis 2:7 we read: “And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, there was a time when there was only one single human being on the earth. And the LORD God had that one single human being observe and name all the living creatures that He had also formed out of the ground. Genesis 2:20, “So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">When Adam viewed all the animals he knew exactly what they were, which is to say that for Adam, naming the animals meant that he had studied, classified and catalogued them. He could see that God had formed each species according to its kind. In other words, Adam could see and understand the very <i>essence</i> of the living creatures.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The words “But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him” mean primarily that there was no other creature with which Adam could reproduce his own kind. Apes might be good at aping, but apes cannot ape man when it comes to reproduction. Only man (male with female) can replicate man, because only man is made in the image of God.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Adam could see how special he was when he considered all the living creatures God had made. “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him’” Genesis 2:18. What was the helper, that God was going to make, to help Adam with? The helper was to help fulfil the Cultural Mandate, part of which was being fruitful, multiplying, and filling the earth. That restricts things a great deal, doesn’t it? It shows us that the man <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">needs</i>a woman.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Genesis 2:21-24: “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed the flesh up in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, just as Adam knew what all the living creatures were, so he knew exactly what woman was. None of the living creatures were ‘bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh’ – only Eve. Literally this woman was part of Adam. She had been taken out of his side. Therefore the two literally were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one</i> flesh. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Adam was to love his own wife as if she were part of his own body. And Eve was to love her own husband as if he were part of her own body. The Apostle Paul puts it like this in Ephesians 5:28-33: “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. <i>‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ </i>This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So we see then, that marriage is restricted to being between one man and one woman. God did not take ten of Adam’s ribs and make ten women – He made only one wife for Adam. Therefore it is not lawful for the man to have more wives than one at the same time, or for the woman to have more than one husband at a time. And neither did God take ten ribs and make one woman and nine children. Therefore marriage is still marriage even when there are yet no children. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, speaking of children produced by marriage, a common question asked by unbelievers is, where did Cain get his wife? Cain, of course, was Adam and Eve’s second son – right after Abel their first. Calvin, in his commentary on Genesis suggests the Cain and Abel were twins. But that is neither here nor there for what we’re considering.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, the reason people ask about Cain’s wife is because of the way we view things nowadays. First off it’s often thought that Adam and Eve only ever had two sons, viz., Cain and Abel. Then, when it is pointed out that Genesis 5:2 tells us that Adam had sons and daughters, therefore Cain married one of his sisters, the accusation of incest is put forth. However, it’s not until you get to the time of Leviticus 18-20 that marital restrictions are spelled out. We see that marrying your own sister is indeed forbidden in Leviticus – which was roughly 2,500 years after Cain married his own sister.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, all sorts of sexual immorality is forbidden in Leviticus 18-20, including bestiality. Apes and monkeys are beasts. However, we’re mainly concerned with the restrictions placed upon the marriage between blood relatives and those of affinity in law. (By affinity in law we mean that marriage is forbidden not only between brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons, etc., but also between brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law etc.). Even after the death of his wife, the man may not marry any of his wife’s relatives nearer in blood than he may of his own relatives, nor the woman of her husband’s relatives nearer in blood than her own. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, you might have felt shock and horror well up within you when you thought about Cain marrying his own sister. But if you keep in mind that Adam married his own rib, so to speak, you won’t go too far wrong. Adam said of Eve, “This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…” This is even closer than marrying your own sister! And yet we were not shocked when we thought about this. Why? Well, it’s because we have become accustomed to the restrictions God, 3,500 years ago, placed upon marrying blood relatives. Up until that point God permitted certain marriages He forbids in Leviticus 18. Abraham was permitted by God to marry Sarah, his half sister – with God’s blessing! However, part of the instructions in the Cultural Mandate was to multiply. When mankind had sufficiently multiplied, God placed restrictions on eligible marriage partners.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, we’ll mention in passing an apparent exception to the affinity in law restriction. We read in Deuteronomy 25:5 that if a wife’s husband dies, then the dead man’s unmarried brother had the duty to marry the widow. This was to give her a child that her dead husband’s name “may not be blotted out of Israel.” We see this very thing acted out in Genesis 38:8. Therefore it must have been in place long before the Law was given to Moses. But in Genesis 38:8 we read: “And Judah said to Onan, ‘Go in to your [dead] brother’s wife and marry her, and raise up an heir for your brother.” Of course Onan didn’t exactly comply with the whole thing, but that’s another story. The point being made at this point is that it would appear that it may be permissible for a man to marry his dead brother’s wife.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, it makes for great common sense for Christians to marry only in the Lord. Not to mention that there are all those verses of Scripture about not being unequally yoked, etc. But we need to be careful not to enter into marriage with anyone who holds to destructive heresies. Therefore, for example, a Reformed Christian, such us we are, is asking for trouble should he enter into marriage with a Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism believes the Reformed understanding of the Gospel to be anathema! </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We must put the Lord first in all things, including marriage. He would have believers marry only believers. Now, this is not to say that marriages between believers and unbelievers, or even marriages between unbelievers are not true or legitimate marriages. However, it is to say that the Lord would have His people be obedient to Him, even in marriage.</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Marital Roles</span></span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">When we talk about marital roles we are simply talking about men being men and women being women, and not so much about who should do the dishes and who should take out the garbage. Marriage was ordained for the <i>mutual</i> help of husband and wife. And it was ordained to increase the human population with a legitimate issue and furnish the church with a holy offspring. And it was ordained for the prevention of moral impurity.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dm-R05AeJoU/WbjY4mQHt_I/AAAAAAAABvY/f8NjLkSVwREUH4TIHxtu_4I7-hzhFtjfACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8191%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dm-R05AeJoU/WbjY4mQHt_I/AAAAAAAABvY/f8NjLkSVwREUH4TIHxtu_4I7-hzhFtjfACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_8191%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><br /><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, to talk about things such as a “legitimate issue” and the “prevention of moral impurity” is to suggest that the world we live in is not the same as when God first formed Adam and Eve. Indeed this has been the case ever since Adam, through the ready help of his wife, ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Eve was to be Adam’s helper. She was to help Adam stay obedient to God’s commandments. Instead, she helped him disobey God. And now we live in a fallen world. Therefore, because of the moral impurity of men and women, children have been conceived and born into this world outside of marriage.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, even though marriage was ordained by God before the Fall of man, it still remains a major part of the Cultural Mandate – which mandate still remains in full force. However, if you’ve ever walked through “The House of Mirrors” and seen your own reflection bend and twist out of shape, so we should expect to see distortions in humanity (the image of God) this side of the Fall of Man.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Man no longer perfectly images God his creator. We’ve noted already that the institution of marriage is under attack in our own age. And therefore it necessarily follows that so are marital roles. It stands to reason that if people think a marriage may comprise of a same-sex couple, then marital roles must be up for grabs too. It means that people haven’t understood the very essence of marriage. Nor have they understood and believed the very essence of a man and the very essence of a woman.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We’ve already noted the very essence of marriage. When discussing the love of a husband for his wife the Apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says in Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Marriage is a picture of Christ and His Bride, the Church. To revise and rewrite the marriage manual (as some today are trying to do) is to tamper with a creation ordinance. Put another way, to redefine marriage so that anything other than one man and one woman may be married at any one time is to break the Law of Nature. Clearly it’s to break the Law of God – for sin is the breaking of God’s Moral Law.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">However, God instituted marriage. Therefore He wrote the manual for it. And God is the One who put the sexual desire in men and women that marriage is designed to satisfy. So, when sinful men rewrite the book of marriage to accommodate sinful aberrations, (i.e., sexual deviations) they are disobeying the Cultural Mandate to provide a legitimate issue for God. (Not to mention the fact that they are tampering with the very essence of humanity)</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Homosexual marriage is a culture of death, not life. It takes a man and a woman to bring forth offspring. If Adam had been given another man for a companion instead of Eve, where would we be today? The human race would have died out!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, we know that amazing things can be done in test-tubes and petri dishes in science labs. But marriage is about the two becoming one flesh, which includes sexual intimacy. To be sure, a marriage is still a marriage even when not (Roman Catholically) consummated by the sex act. For Adam was really married to Eve before he “knew” her on their honeymoon.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">However, it is through the husband and wife sharing their bodies with each other that produces the legitimate offspring that God wants us to produce. Therefore nature itself rules out same-sex marriage, regardless of the wonders of modern science.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The husband has the role of husband to his own wife, and the wife has the role of wife to her own husband. As Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11:8&amp;9, “For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.” Feminists hate the fact that God made Eve so that she could be Adam’s helper. But this is simply to confuse the roles of husbands and wives in marriage. For marriage is for <i>mutual</i> help for husband and wife. In other words, the “helper” aspect of marriage is two-way.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We’ve mentioned already that one of the reasons God instituted marriage was for the prevention immorality, or moral impurity – including sexual immorality. God did not create Adam and Eve as infants or children (i.e., without sexual desire), but as mature adults. Mankind was created with God’s Law written on their hearts (Romans 2:14&amp;15), including the 7<sup>th</sup> Commandment. “Thou shalt not commit adultery” was written of course in positive terms, such as “Be pure and loyal.” Only adults are able to commit <i>adult</i>-ery. Children are not adults.Therefore children cannot commit adultery. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Not committing adultery or being pure and loyal means also being <i>sexually</i> pure and <i>sexually</i> loyal. Therefore every husband is to be sexually pure and sexually loyal to his own wife. And every wife is to be sexually pure and sexually loyal to her own husband. Therefore this rules out sex outside of marriage and even sex before marriage. How so? Well, it’s because God has ordained marriage for the mutual help of a <i>husband and wife</i>.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Part of that mutual help includes satisfying the sexual desires God has given us. And to try to satisfy those sexual desires outside of the marriage as God has instituted it, is to engage in morally impure thoughts and behaviour. In short, it is to sin; which is to break God’s Moral Law. So, for marriage to work the way God designed it, there needs to be one man and one woman in the marriage at any one time. The male is the husband and the female is the wife.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, we hear lots of Christians nowadays brag about having gifts of healing, speaking in tongues, and that kind of thing. Be that as it may, but have you ever heard of any Christian brag that he has the gift of celibacy? We believe that the Apostle Paul, who was probably a widower, had the gift of celibacy. For he says in 1 Corinthians 7:7-9: “For I wish that all men were even as myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; but if they cannot exercise self control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” (Albert Barnes comments: “The word <i>unmarried… </i>may refer to those who had never been married, or to widowers.” Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament).</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, there are some adults whom God has given the gift of celibacy, which is to say that they are like little children again, in that they are free from sexual desire, i.e., burning with passion. The gift of celibacy is a good gift for a husband and wife to have for those times when they are apart for a spell, such as when one of them is on an overseas trip, and that kind of thing.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But regarding one of the main reasons for marriage the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 7:2: “Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.” </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Neither the husband nor the wife wants the gift of celibacy when they are together, unless perhaps there is some physical problem where sexual intimacy has become impossible. And there might of course be times such as that mentioned in 1 Corinthians 7:5. There are times when couples will forgo sexual intimacy, such as for fasting and prayer.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, if you keep in mind what marriage is a picture of, you won’t go too far wrong when you try to understand the role of the husband and the role of the wife in marriage. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5 spells out the roles in terms of Christ and His Bride, the Church. Wives are to submit to their own husbands, as to the Lord, he says in Ephesians 5:22. Then he explains why: “For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything” Ephesians 5:23&amp;24. So you see then, that in order to understand marriage, and even the roles of husband and wife in marriage, you must understand the role of the church in the world. Christ and the church is what marriage is all about. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Therefore the godly wife is a picture of the church. And the godly husband is a picture of Christ. For Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 5:25f. “Husbands ought to love their wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Have you got that? It is the role of the husband to give himself for his wife, which is to say that he is to be about the business of presenting her to the Lord without any spot or wrinkle, i.e., without any moral impurities. In simple terms, the role of the husband is to sanctify and cleanse his own wife with the washing of the Word. The role of the wife is to encourage and let her husband do this. In other words, she’s to treat her husband as if it were the Lord Himself who is teaching her. For is that not the way it is in the Lord’s church? Are we not to be submit ourselves to the Word of Christ as we hear it taught and proclaimed?</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Some people think that ecclesiology and church polity are of little significance – “Not a Gospel essential!” is what they say. Well, I put it to you that marriage is a “Gospel essential”. And I say that because the Bible says it! We’ve just briefly noted that one of the reasons God ordained marriage was to furnish the church with a holy offspring. Speaking of a husband and his wife it says in Malachi 2:14b &amp; 15a, “Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring.” </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Christ and His Church are one. A husband and his wife are one. Christ seeks a holy and godly offspring (also 1 Corinthians 7:14). Therefore marriage is a “Gospel essential.” For godly marriages producing holy and godly offspring is every bit as important as the conversion of non-Christians to Christianity. Are not both about the extension of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth? Both are about the Church submitting to Jesus Christ, her Husband, in the Cultural Mandate of which the Great Commission is the latter day fulfilment</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Conclusion</span></span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Marriage is a wonderful thing that has been ordained by God. Therefore it needs to be entered into with both eyes wide open. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry – even non-Christian people! But only those who are able to give their reasoned consent should marry. This rules out chimpanzees!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">When is a child able to give its reasoned consent? In other words at what age should people be allowed to marry? Well, that will vary, won’t it? Are there any Biblical reasons why those who have reached child producing and child bearing age should not marry? – i.e., those having reached adult-hood? </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Culturally we think fourteen-year-olds shouldn’t marry because they’re too young. Surely the Lord would wish only that a couple be able to give their mature reasoned (i.e., adult) consent. Sixteen is young, but perhaps old enough? Eighteen and over sounds about right? Is there a Biblical basis for this, a precedent? Adam and Eve weren’t even a day old when God married them! But they both were mature adults. Even so, that was a special instance, wasn’t it? But the institution of marriage began with God marrying Adam and Eve. Therefore that’s where we need to begin our study in order to fully understand the essence of marriage.</span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-10673858759896464062017-09-11T06:29:00.000+10:002017-09-11T07:03:29.438+10:00Christian Liberty<br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 24pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">CHRISTIAN LIBERTY</span></span></b></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">(See Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 20)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref25"></a><a href="file:///C:/Users/McKinlay/AppData/Local/Temp/Rar$EXa0.490/html/dtp_1969822_USER_CONTENT_13_RDQ4G96SWJA3F760Z8T0.html#_edn25"><span style="margin: 0px;">[xxv]</span></a></span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Introduction</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">If I were to ask you what was the greatest thing enjoyed by the Western world, what would your answer be? What is it that makes the West the West? Surely it would be summed up in one word: Liberty! Liberty or Freedom of speech and expression is what the West is noted for.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, where did this liberty come from? Were people in the West always free to voice their opinions? Or was there a time when the Western nations were under tyrannical regimes telling you what you could think, say, and do? Surely it was the Reformation that began in 1517 that brought with it the Liberty we now enjoy in the West.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Before that time the Western nations were in bondage to the papacy. The Pope of Rome would dictate who could marry, on what days you could and couldn’t eat meat and so forth. The papacy kept the western nations in bondage by binding the consciences of men to its traditions and false teachings. But the Reformation changed all that. The Reformation brought freedom from the bondage to all the commandments of men that were contrary to Scripture. How? Well, the Reformation was about rediscovering the Gospel.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, the Gospel is sharper than a two-edged sword. The Gospel sword cuts us free FROM bondage. But it also at the same time cuts us free FOR liberty. The Apostle Paul sums up the liberty enjoyed by those nations who have come under the Gospel, (i.e., the Western nations), where he says in Galatians 5:1: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, you would be correct if you thought that Paul is addressing only Christians in that passage of Scripture. But the point is that the Liberty enjoyed in the Western nations is on account of the Christian Gospel as found only in God’s Word. Remove the Gospel and you effectively remove the people’s freedoms. That’s what Roman Catholicism had done for centuries. But reveal the Gospel and you effectively remove the people’s bondage. This is what the Reformation did for the European nations under Rome’s bondage.</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Liberty of the Christian</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Liberty is a long list for the Christian. The list includes liberty from: a) The guilt of sin. b) The condemning wrath of God. c) The curse of the Moral Law. d) The bondage to this present evil world. e) The bondage of Satan. f) The dominion of sin. g) The <i>evil</i> of sufferings. h) The sting of death.&nbsp; i) The victory of the grave. j) Everlasting damnation.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Let’s consider each of these liberties briefly. Because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross God no longer considers the Christian guilty of breaking His Moral Law. God atoned for the Christian’s guilt by imputing it to His Son who received, and paid in full, the punishment we were due for our sins while on the cross. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">And because God has removed the Christian’s guilt from him, the Christian no longer has the condemning wrath of God hovering over him like dark clouds of destruction. This means that the curse of God’s Moral Law has been removed from the Christian.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Christ became a sin-offering or curse-offering on the cross and removed the sin and curse from the Christian. And because the guilt of sin has been removed from the Christian, and the condemning wrath of God, and the curse of the Moral Law, the Christian no longer lives in darkness. Which is to say that the Christian has been presently translated or transferred from the spiritual darkness of this present evil world and into Christ’s kingdom of light. Therefore the Christian is no longer in bondage to the false teachings and the evil philosophies produced by fallen men in the fallen world.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">And because he is no longer in bondage to false teaching, the devil has no power over him. Therefore the devil’s cold, clammy, slimy claws have been removed from the Christian. He no longer is able to pull our strings or use us a ventriloquist uses a dummy. Christ’s cross has removed the devil’s hand from up our back. And because the devil has lost his grip on us our bondage or slavery to sin has been broken. The devil only had to suggest things to us and our sinful nature inclined us to obey his suggestions. But now we follow Christ. We don’t listen to the voice of the stranger.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">And because we are safe in the hand of Christ and God we no longer suffer evil afflictions. Unlike the non-Christian, the Christian’s sufferings are not judgments of God. Rather they are chastenings of our Heavenly Father for our own good. As the Scripture says: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD… For whom the LORD loves He chastens…” Hebrews 12:5&amp;6.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Therefore the terrible things that happen to you (the Christian) are not happening to you because God hates you, but because God loves you! They are not <i>evil</i> sufferings, but fatherly chastisements. And even death itself has had its sting removed for the Christian. The Christian no longer has to fear death, because it is not the end of the line for him. Unlike the non-Christian who faces everlasting death, the Christian has everlasting life.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">And the beauty of everlasting life is that the Christian has it <i>now</i>. Therefore the sting is removed from death for the Christian because he knows that the grave has no power over him. He sees Christ’s resurrection as his own victory over the grave. Therefore for the Christian being put in the grave is like a child being tucked into bed. For it is God our heavenly Father who puts us in our graves when it is time for us to go! But just as He awakened His Son from the grave on that Sunday morning, so will He awaken all His adopted children when it is time for us to get up again.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Though the soul does not sleep, the Christian in his grave is, as it were, ‘sleeping in heavenly rest.’ But, as the Scripture says, there is no peace, no rest for the wicked. However, the Christian has been delivered from everlasting damnation; i.e., restless torment.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, the liberty enjoyed by the Christian is something to rejoice about! And the Christian does indeed rejoice as one who has heard good news! And he gives thanks to God for that good news. And he does so by coming to God in prayer through Jesus Christ who has given him free access to God through His name on account of His shed blood.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Christian also delights to worship God in the name of Jesus Christ. And the Christian seeks to worship and serve God by rendering obedience to Him. Therefore God’s Moral Law as summarized in the Ten Commandments is a delight to the Christian. The Christian delights in God’s Moral Law because it instructs him in holiness and righteousness. It’s his rule of life, everlasting life! </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">And none of what we’ve already looked at was any different for believers in the Old Testament. Abraham is the father of all believers. And “…those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” Galatians 3:9. The same Gospel we believe was preached beforehand to Abraham (Galatians 3:8), and all believers after him.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The main difference between Old Testament believers and ourselves is that our liberty has been extended further than theirs. The Old Testament believers had Ceremonial Laws to contend with. These Ceremonial Laws pointed to the Christ who was to come. But now that He has come they are no longer needed. So, we don’t need a glorious temple with all its sacrificial system to come before God. Now we have access to God’s throne with greater boldness. And not only that, but New Testament believers have the Holy Spirit in a way not enjoyed by the church in the Old Testament. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">To be sure the Holy Spirit was present and ministered to the Old Testament saints. But we have a fuller measure of the Holy Spirit. Which is to say that the God who dwelt in the midst of His people between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies in the Temple, now dwells in the hearts of His people. Which is to say that believers are now the Temple of the living God. Therefore the liberty each Christian has today is that we each have <i>personal</i> access to God.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We no longer need to make annual pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem to access God. So, in a word, the Liberty of the Christian is tied up in the personal access he has to the living God. All the old barriers and obstacles (including our sin) have been removed by Jesus Christ. Everything that stood in our way to God’s throne has been removed by Him.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">It is the message of the Gospel that demolishes all these barriers and removes all obstacles. However, the more the Gospel is hid away, the more the barriers of sin are again replaced and rebuilt. Therefore, it is the duty of every Christian to do his bit to keep the Gospel fires burning. This he does by making sure his <i>own</i> conscience is kept clear of all barriers and obstacles to God.</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Liberty of the Conscience</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">God alone is Lord of the conscience. And if God alone is Lord of the conscience then God alone can grant liberty of conscience. We have seen already the liberty He grants us as Christians. But what does it mean to have liberty of conscience? </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Liberty of conscience is the freedom the Christian has to say no to anything contrary to God’s Moral Law. To be sure there might be a price to pay for going against the teachings and commandments of men that are contrary to God’s Word. Just ask the martyrs! However, it’s as Peter and the other Apostles said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29b.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">To obey the teachings and commandments of men that are contrary to God’s Law is to betray liberty of conscience. That’s why Paul, as already mentioned, is exhorting Christians in Galatians 5:1 to “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">In Romans 14:2 and 15:1 Paul talks about weak believers who are pernickety about what they may and may not eat and drink. This is to say that the one who is weak is conscience-bound. He thinks he is sinning by eating certain foods and drinking certain drinks. And the trouble is that were he to eat and drink that which he thinks he’s forbidden to eat or drink he would be sinning, even though the thing he is doing is not necessarily sinful in itself.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Thus, to go against your own conscience is to sin against God. Therefore, if God alone is Lord of the conscience it would make sense to make sure that God alone has banned the food or drink you are refusing before you bind your own conscience.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">However, this area of food, drink, clothing etc. is the area of the <i>adiaphora</i>, i.e., <i>things indifferent. </i>In other words these are the types of things God leaves up to the conscience. We see this illustrated in a careful reading of Romans chapter fourteen, for example.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">John Calvin based a great deal of his cultural philosophy on the principle of ‘things indifferent.’ He says: <i>“The third part of Christian freedom lies in this: regarding outward things that are of themselves ‘indifferent,’ we are not bound before God by any religious obligation preventing us from sometimes using them and other times not using them, indifferently. And the knowledge of this freedom is very necessary for us, for if it is lacking, our consciences will have no repose and there will be no end to superstitions.” </i>(Institutes of the Christian Religion, Bk. 3, 19, 7).</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Romish church is famous for binding the consciences of its people by forbidding things permitted by God, and permitting things forbidden by God: as are all Communistic States, for example. The only way to combat this type of bondage is to do what the Prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 8:20: “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Is this a strange thing to tell those who have been given liberty by Christ’s Gospel? I hope you can see that the liberty you have been given is the liberty to say no to anything <i>contrary</i>to God’s Word. Surely you can see that your liberty as a Christian comes, not from discarding God’s Law, but rather from studying it and applying it in your life. Which is to say that the more you understand the nature and content of God’s Moral Law the freer you become.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Think about it, if you try to play soccer without knowing the rules you’ll end up being sent off for breaking the rules. If you try to drive a car through a busy city without knowing the rules of driving you’ll be in big trouble. You’ll end up in all sorts of traffic jambs and you’ll be a danger to yourself and to others.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Would you call this kind of thing freedom? Or does it sound more like bondage to ignore and even reject the laws of driving? You shouldn’t even be on the soccer pitch or on the road if you don’t know and obey the rules! Well, apply this principle to living on God’s earth. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Abide by God’s Law for mankind and you will know great freedom on earth. And the more you study, know, and apply God’s Law, the greater your freedom will be. Therefore make sure your conscience is not bound by things contrary to God’s Law, for that is to be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Liberty of Culture</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, we’ve already mentioned the <i>adiaphora, </i>i.e., that great realm of ‘things indifferent.’ The more you study God’s Word the more you’ll learn how vast this realm is. And the more you learn of its vastness, the more you’ll begin to see the great liberty God has given us for developing culture. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ANFjZl54Crc/WbWgWu7eMiI/AAAAAAAABvI/BO6ELci3TUkN-aIIM3zyiZLnkDICfoaZwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6859%2B%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ANFjZl54Crc/WbWgWu7eMiI/AAAAAAAABvI/BO6ELci3TUkN-aIIM3zyiZLnkDICfoaZwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6859%2B%25283%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><br /><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">This is where Calvinism comes into it’s own. For Calvinism is about doing all things to the glory of God i.e., eating, drinking, or whatever you do. This, in a word, is the <i>regeneration</i> of culture and cultural activity. For Calvin demonstrated from the Scriptures that neither Church nor State has the authority to bind the conscience regarding things that God calls ‘indifferent.’ Therefore, because there is an area of life outside of the jurisdiction of Church and State, men were now at liberty to develop those things that are to do with culture - such as art, music, architecture, food, drink, clothing etc., - without Church or State interference. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">This is the freedom we enjoy in Western nations. And it was the Gospel that brought this freedom. This is the freedom to fulfill the Cultural Mandate given by God to man in Genesis (1:26f.)</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now then, paradoxically, the Gospel brings us liberty to keep God’s Law. Therefore to keep God’s Law is to keep our liberty. God’s Law in the realm of the Church is administered through the Session of Elders at the local level. And God’s Law in the realm of the State is administered through Civil Authorities, (Romans 13). And we have seen that God’s Law is administered in the realm of cultural activities through our own conscience.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">This third realm where God’s Law gives freedom is the realm where <i>conscience</i> rules. And God alone is the Lord of conscience, and not Church or State.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, how does a Christian maintain the liberty purchased for him by Christ? He keeps that blood-bought freedom by knowing and keeping the Moral Law out of love for God. For Jesus says, “If you love Me keep My commandments.” John 14:15. Therefore if you would abide in His love you should keep His commandments. For He goes on to say in John 15:10: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, we are quite aware that we don’t always keep His commandments. But <i>how</i> are we aware that we don’t always keep His commandments? Well, it’s because of our conscience, isn’t it? Our conscience accuses us when we go against it. So, what we are saying then is that you are to make sure that <i>your</i> conscience is bound only by what God says in His Word, and not anything said by men contrary to His Word. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:21&amp;22: “Test all things, hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” How do you know what is good and what is evil? Well, it’s “To the law and to the testimony!” The Word of God <i>alone</i> is the rule of life for the Christian. As the Psalmist says, “Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Psalm 119:11.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, as we begin to work toward a close, I think we’ve sufficiently illustrated that the liberty we’re speaking of is not the liberty to sin. Neither is it a type of liberty that will lead a person to sin. So, in a word, the liberty we have is liberty <i>from</i> bondage <i>for</i>obedience. Which is to say that we have been delivered from all our enemies (sin, Satan, death, the grave etc. etc.) that we might worship and serve the Lord without fear.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">God by His grace has granted us liberty that we might serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives. Now, all of this liberty makes us most valuable members of the Church and society. Which is to say that we are in general law-abiding citizens of state and church. The church has a board of discipline, just as the state has a board of discipline. The Session of Elders operates in the ecclesiastical realm and the Civil Authorities in the realm of the State. But both realms operate under the authority of God. Which is to say that the one complements the other by encouraging obedience to God.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">To be sure you may think that this is stretching things a little bit when you look at the governing authorities in Australia (and other Western nations) today. However, just sit down and have a right good think about what the governing authorities are telling us to do or not to do, and see if it lines up with the Word of God. Yes, you’ll find the odd thing here and there, but all in all surely you can see that the liberty we enjoy in this great nation of ours is Gospel liberty.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, we see then that the Civil Authority in its sphere and the Church in its sphere are at liberty to punish those who publish and practice such opinions contrary to the Moral Law of God. For example, you can see how this applies to the Fourth Commandment. Should the Civil Authorities permit huge department stores to open on the Christian Sabbath? The Civil Authorities must consider what impact Sunday opening will have on the Church. So, we see even in this brief example that Church and State need to work together to promote a God-honouring society.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Western nation that forgets its Reformational roots is becoming entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Remember indeed that it was the conscience set free from the thought-control of the Church and the State that enabled the Western nations to prosper and develop culturally from the time of the Reformation till today. Remember that the conscience of the people was liberated by the rediscovery of the Gospel. No longer could the Church or the State keep the people in bondage in the realm of the <i>adiaphora</i>.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Henry R Van Til attributes this great emancipation of Western thought to Calvin (which we’ve already touched on): <i>“Now Calvin proclaimed alongside of church and state a third realm, an area of life that has a separate existence and jurisdiction. It is called the sphere of the adiaphora, the things indifferent. This is the court of conscience. No pope nor king may here hold sway.</i></span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">This area is not restricted to a few insignificant matters of taste and opinion among individuals, but it includes music, architecture, technical learning, science, social festivities, and the everyday question, ‘what shall we eat and what shall we drink and where-withal shall we be clothed?’ Now Calvin proclaims freedom from church and state for this whole large area of life in his doctrine of Christian liberty, making man responsible and accountable to God alone in his conscience.” </span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">(The Calvinistic Concept of Culture, p. 99).</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Conclusion</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;"></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Let us “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” We do this by reminding ourselves what we’ve been set free from. And also what we’ve been set free for. We have been delivered from the hands of all our enemies that we might serve the Lord, without fear, in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our lives.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31.</span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-87213099458097145962017-09-01T16:57:00.002+10:002017-09-02T08:45:13.539+10:00Man's Free Will<br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 24pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">MAN’S FREE WILL</span></span></b></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">(See Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ednref13"></a>9)</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Introduction</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Free will is one of those doctrines that need to be wrestled with <i>before</i> the blessing of understanding comes. It’s reminiscent of Jacob not wanting to let go the Man he wrestled with all night until that Man blessed him. That Man, of course, turned out to be the pre-incarnate Sovereign Lord Himself!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">There are many in the churches today that on account of the view they hold on free will have, as it were, snatched God’s sovereignty from Him without even having wrestled with Him. In other words, they presuppose that <i>man</i> is sovereign in his own right! And because they view man as sovereign in his own right, when, e.g., it comes to salvation, they don’t believe that it is God, so to speak, who enters the ring and wrestles with men in order to save and bless them. And so we’re left with the strange spectacle today of “Gospel preachers” proclaiming a God who is waiting patiently in the sidelines for you to decide to let Him save you!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">This is a “Gospel” in which you are being urged to invite God into the ring, or the centre of the football stadium, or into your heart, so that you can embrace Him! Do you see the picture? There you are sitting in the sidelines listening to a message. Then you’re invited to leave the ringside and enter the ring to give God a hug as He patiently waits in the ring for you. What’s wrong with this picture? Well, it has put <i>you</i> in sovereign control of your own salvation – it’s all left up to you! </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">To be sure, God holds each of us responsible for our own actions, but the Gospel is not about you inviting God into your heart, but rather it is about God genuinely inviting you the rebel to repent of your sins and believe in the Gospel. You see, in salvation, as in all other things, it is God alone who is sovereign. It is God who takes the initiative.&nbsp; </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Therefore, the teaching that God won’t intrude on your “airspace” unless you invite Him is a <i>false</i> one! And it all stems from a faulty understanding of man’s free will. Yes, man always has free will, but don’t confuse free will with ability. We are <i>free</i> to choose good over evil, Heaven over Hell, but this freedom doesn’t necessarily mean that we are always <i>able</i> to refuse the evil and to choose the good.</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Freewill Pre-Fall</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” Genesis 1:1. In this opening verse of the Bible we see that God is the <i>ultimate</i>source of all created things. Man is a <i>thing</i> created by God. Therefore, it was God who took the initiative to create man.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">It’s very important that you hold on to the distinction between God and man. God <i>alone</i> is the Creator. Man is a creature. Therefore, there is no equality between God and man. God is sovereign over all creation. Therefore, God is sovereign over man, who is an aspect of God’s creation.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The sovereign LORD God created man in His own likeness: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” Genesis 1:27-28.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, we see then that man is a sovereign of <i>sorts.</i>He has dominion over fish, birds, and every thing that creeps on the earth. But, man’s sovereignty is a <i>derived</i> sovereignty. It is a sovereignty granted or gifted to us by God. So, again we see that God alone is sovereign over all things, including you and me. Therefore, whatever sovereignty we have over any thing, it has been granted to us by God.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cieP4htgM_c/WakEwmrK3EI/AAAAAAAABu0/TRxdp7kLJ7gz2jIdB47Q2S_KmI7P7-m6wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6775%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cieP4htgM_c/WakEwmrK3EI/AAAAAAAABu0/TRxdp7kLJ7gz2jIdB47Q2S_KmI7P7-m6wCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6775%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">When He made man in His image the sovereign LORD entered into a covenant with us (mankind) as represented by Adam. “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree in the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” Genesis 2:15-17.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">In this we see that God had given man a <i>test</i>. This test was a test of man’s <i>will</i>. The man was to decide whether he would be willing to refuse or shun the evil and do the good that God had commanded him to do. Therefore, man was to exercise his will – his <i>freewill</i>. Would man <i>will</i> to do the good things God commanded him to do? Or would man <i>will</i> or <i>choose</i> the evil and disobey God?</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">At this point you need to see that God has endued or equipped man with a free will, which is to say that when God created man He created him with a natural freedom. Thus man by <i>nature</i> is free – free to exercise his will whichever way he chooses. In other words, when God created mankind He created us in a way that we are not forced or determined or compelled to good or evil by anything inside or outside of us. There was no inner compulsion and there was no outer compulsion for man to do good or evil. To be sure, the subtle serpent was very enticing. But the decision to choose either good or evil, life or death, Heaven or Hell rested in the very <i>nature</i>of man as he was created.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Man before the Fall was <i>able</i> of himself and by himself to choose one or the other. The sovereign Lord had designed man with this freedom of will. Therefore, by <i>free </i>will we mean that man is able to will or choose <i>only</i> those things that are in accordance with his <i>nature</i>. And we know that God had created man with a <i>good</i> nature, because when God saw everything He had made, including man, indeed it was very good (Genesis 1:31). So, man was a good-natured soul in the beginning. Therefore, he wasn’t created <i>neutral</i>. Rather man was created good with a tendency toward good. Pre-Fall man tended toward good because God created man with a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good</i> nature. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But what happened next? Well, as you know man exercised the free will God had given him. But, for some reason he chose evil over good! He chose death over life; Hell over Heaven! Why? Well, I’m afraid we’re left with a bit of a mystery as to why. But we do know that man of his own free will chose to disobey God. And didn’t that throw the proverbial spanner into the works, i.e., the works of man!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But, did God lose His sovereignty over man when man sinned? Did man somehow snatch God’s sovereignty from Him? Of course not! God came seeking the man and his wife in the garden, didn’t He? In other words, the sovereign LORD God stepped into the ring with Adam and Eve. And He graciously promised them that He would take care of the mess <i>they</i> had made! He promised that He would send One to crush the serpent’s head. And He sovereignly pronounced judgment on the serpent, and Adam, and his wife, Eve. And He cursed the ground for man’s sake. Then He made tunics of skin and clothed the man and his wife.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But what happened to the freewill that man had been created with? Nothing! Nothing happened to man’s free will. But what happened to man? What happened to that good <i>nature</i> he had been created with?</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Freewill Post-Fall</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” Genesis 3:8. Adam and Eve exercised their God-given freewill and sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit. Therefore, they both failed the outward test God had set for them, which is to say that Adam broke the covenant God had made with Adam as humanity’s representative (Hosea 6:7; Rom 12:5f. etc.), i.e., the Covenant of Works.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But notice that the man and the woman still had freewill post-Fall. But they did not exercise that freewill and decide to seek after God in order to find forgiveness – which would have been <i>good</i>. No, they both decided or chose to hide themselves from God among the trees. Therefore, after the Fall they chose only the evil. Why did man after the Fall choose not to <i>refuse</i> the evil and do the good? Well, it was because man’s <i>nature</i> had become corrupt. He was no longer “good-natured” but had become “bad-natured.” </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">And because man has a God-given freewill, man can only ever act according to his (now corrupt) nature regarding God. Therefore, if man is corrupt by nature, then that which springs from his nature will be corrupt. It’s as Jesus says in Matthew 7:17&amp;18, “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Man by his Fall became a bad tree bearing bad fruit, which is another way of saying that he became dead in his trespasses and sins, Colossians 1:13. And because we’ve become bad trees bearing bad fruit we are deserving only of the fires of Hell as just punishment. As John the Baptist says, “And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.&nbsp; Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” Luke 3:9.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, what are we to do? Mankind has been hiding from God among the trees as it were since Adam and Eve sinned. Why wouldn’t we just come out into the light and beg God for mercy? Well again, we will not do that because that would be a <i>good</i> or an <i>unfallen</i> or <i>spiritual </i>thing. And man in his fallen or spiritually dead state is not able to do any such good spiritual thing! It says in Genesis 6:5, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And if you think that man has somehow changed in <i>nature</i> from this, then just read Romans 3:10-12: “As it is written: <i>‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.’”</i></span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, we see then that things haven’t changed since Adam and Eve were hiding in the bushes from God. There is <i>still</i> none who seeks after God. There is <i>still</i> none who does good. Now, the type of good that is being spoken of here is <i>spiritual</i> good, of course. It’s not saying that mankind does no good deeds whatsoever. But rather it’s saying that <i>man has lost all ability to do any spiritual good regarding salvation.</i> Man, by his Fall, is not <i>able</i> to save himself, nor is he able even to contribute one iota to his salvation. This is where the confusion lies among Christians today. Those who are confused think that <i>freewill</i> means <i>ability</i>. They think that if you are <i>free</i> to do something then you must have the <i>ability</i>to do it.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Is an eagle free to rise up and soar in the sky? Yes? If its wings are clipped, is it still free to rise up and soar in the sky? Of course the eagle is still <i>free</i> to fly. But is it <i>able</i> with clipped wings? Well, so it is with you and me. We are free to will whatever we will, but we are not able to do any spiritual good. God clipped our spiritual wings when we sinned in Adam in the garden. Therefore, we killed ourselves spiritually when in Adam our representative we transgressed God’s everlasting covenant. However, unlike the eagle with its wings clipped, which, because of its nature wants to fly but is unable, we, because of our fallen natures are not only unable to choose God, but we do not want to! In other words, we are at enmity or war with God!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Spiritual death is an aspect of the penalty for our breaking the Covenant of Works: ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ Romans 6:23 (see also Genesis 2:17). God’s Law and Gospel are spiritual things. Therefore fallen man is dead to these things because he is spiritually dead – he is carnally-minded. He is dead to <i>spiritual things</i> – the things of God, which includes His Law and Gospel! It’s as the Apostle Paul says under inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:7, “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Therefore, in order for a man to respect God who is Spirit, and respect His spiritual Law, the <i>nature</i> of a man would need to undergo a change. The bad tree would need to somehow be changed or transformed into a good tree. The eagle would somehow need to regain its wings. And that’s what the Gospel is all about, isn’t it? It’s about God bringing the <i>spiritually</i>dead back to life! It’s about a gracious God giving you the <i>ability</i> and the <i>will </i>or <i>desire </i>to mount up with wings as eagles! God needs to restore and renew our fallen and unwilling nature.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">As it was in the Garden right after the fall, so it is now. As BB Warfield put it: “The Gospel is the seeking love of God.” Yes, the Gospel is about God seeking fallen men. Hence it has nothing to do with fallen men seeking God. For <i>“…there is none who does good, no, not one”</i>Romans 3:11b. Yet, you’d think it’s about fallen men seeking God, were you to look at today’s so-called gospel where it’s thought, given the right atmosphere and conditions, man will choose or decide to follow God! What a distortion of the true Gospel it is when fallen men are no longer viewed as they really are: i.e., “…dead in trespasses and sins…” and “by nature children of wrath…” Ephesian 2:3.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Listen to Ephesians 2:1-3 if you don’t believe me, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Notice that <i>God </i>is the One who makes alive. And notice <i>who</i> He makes alive, i.e., those dead in trespasses and sins. And notice <i>how</i> those who are dead in trespasses and sins conduct themselves. They walk according to the course of this world; not God’s kingdom. They conduct themselves in the lusts of sinful flesh, fulfilling its desires even of the mind. And look at who they are by <i>nature</i>. They are by nature “children of wrath.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So we see then, that though the freewill of man was left intact after the Fall, man is dead in trespasses and sins. And as such he desires only those evil things, which is to say that he is averse all <i>spiritual</i>good. Therefore he is not <i>able</i> to convert himself, or even able to <i>prepare</i>himself for conversion. He is a ship without a rudder, heading for the rocks of destruction. He is a cloud without water, carried about by the winds. He is a late autumn tree without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, (see Jude 12).</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Yes, mankind in our lost and fallen condition is by nature “children of wrath.” Think about it: if the unregenerate did not have freewill God could not hold them accountable for their sins! Therefore, it is because we have a freewill that God holds us all accountable (i.e., responsible) for our sins in the first place!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But the good news is that God is gracious!</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Freewill Under Grace</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Man is not able to bring himself back to life. But God is able to bring dead things back to life, even to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everlasting</i> life. But He doesn’t meet you half way in order to give you everlasting life. It’s not “God has done His bit, now you need to do yours. So hop down to the front so you can invite Him into your heart and get saved!”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Can’t you see that this is teaching you that <i>you</i>are somehow able to save yourself? If you are able to decide to follow Jesus then the Bible must be wrong when it says that it is God who makes us alive! Because, by definition, in order to be able to decide to follow Jesus you would need to be spiritually alive <i>already</i>! And if you were spiritually alive already you wouldn’t need a Saviour! Because the Saviour was sent to save those who are spiritually dead, i.e., sinners! And if you are not spiritually dead, then you are a good tree producing good fruit. And if you are not a bad tree producing bad fruit, you are not in need of salvation! And yet they continue to fill whole football stadiums with this false teaching about man! And it’s mostly to do with a wrong understanding of man’s freewill.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Left to his own, fallen man is not able to choose the good and refuse the evil. That’s what the Bible teaches cover to cover! It’s like a child being given the choice of liver and onions or ice cream. The child is free to choose either, but will choose the ice cream every time! Martin Luther wrote a book about the bondage of the will. The will is in bondage to our own sinful nature. But there is this good-news-teaching in the Bible about grace – God’s grace! “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” Ephesians 2:8&amp;9.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">If any unconverted sinner is able to decide to follow Jesus then he is, by definition, saved by his own works. But the Bible teaches that it is God who saves sinners by His grace alone. His grace is a gift, a <i>free</i> gift – it’s not of works. If we were able to do any work, no matter how small, towards our salvation then we would have grounds to boast. But we have absolutely no grounds for boasting because we are saved by God’s grace alone. He is the One who raises us, who are dead in our trespasses and sins, back to life. As Jesus says to His disciples, even you and me, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…” John 15:16.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But, let’s say that you have been raised to life spiritually. Let’s say that you who were once a bad tree have now become a good tree. What kind of fruit would you now be producing? Good fruit? Well, is boasting about something you didn’t do, good fruit? Yet how many millions that have gone forward at altar calls (whether in football stadiums or in church buildings, wherever) have been taught that it was <i>they</i> who decided for, or chose, Jesus? </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">As well-meaning as this <i>decisionistic</i>teaching is, how many in the churches today, because of it, believe that bad trees can produce good fruit? Chaos! For that’s what you’re teaching if you believe that fallen men are <i>able</i> to decide (without God’s having first regenerated them) to follow Jesus of their own free will, or even that they are able to decide with the assistance of God’s grace. But the Bible teaches that fallen man will <i>only</i> decide in accordance with his fallen <i>nature</i>. It’s from this fallen nature, i.e., that God-avoiding, God-despising corrupt nature, that God converts us. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">When Adam and Eve sinned they became corrupt <i>by nature</i>, didn’t they? They became bad trees producing bad fruit, didn’t they? Okay, if Adam and Eve were bad trees producing bad fruit, what kind of offspring would they produce? They would be bad trees producing bad fruit all the way down to you and me! And if we are all children of Adam and Eve, what kind of trees are we? We are bad trees producing bad fruit. As Jesus says in John 3:6-7, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the <i>Spirit</i>gives birth to spirit. So we see then that it is the Spirit of God who gives birth to <i>spiritual</i> people. And, as we ourselves didn’t give birth to ourselves when we were born <i>physically</i>, neither do we give birth to ourselves when we are born <i>spiritually</i>. The Holy Spirit must work <i>savingly</i>in our heart before we can be born again. Therefore, as we don’t decide to be born physically, neither do we decide to be born spiritually.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Those who are invited to decide for Jesus cannot decide or choose to follow Jesus <i>unless</i> they are <i>already</i> born again! For <i>only</i> those who are born of the Spirit are able to do any spiritual good. Only the recipients of God’s saving grace are able to choose the good and refuse the evil. Have you got that? Man <i>before</i> the fall was able to choose the good and refuse the evil. But man <i>after</i> the Fall was only able to choose the evil but not the good. However, those who have been born again by the Spirit of grace are once again able to choose the good. But the trouble is that they are able also to choose the evil and sometimes do! As Paul says to the Galatians in Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things you wish.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So the Christian has a wrestling match going on within. It’s as the Apostle says in Romans 7:18-20, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to perform what is good I do not find. For the good I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”<b> </b>The Apostle is saying then that there is corruption <i>remaining </i>in the heart of those who have been born again. Man <i>before</i> the fall was spiritually alive. Man <i>after</i> the Fall was spiritually dead. Man <i>after</i> saving grace is spiritually alive, but still suffers the effects of sin. But in each of these three conditions man’s freewill is intact. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">You who have been born of the Spirit of God, do you not still sin? And when you sin are you not conscious of the fact that you have <i>chosen</i> or <i>decided</i> or <i>willed</i> to sin? Of course you sin! And of course you are conscious of the fact that you choose to sin. But when you sin it’s like the dog returning to its own vomit, isn’t it? You wonder why you sin when you find it so repulsive! Well, you sin because there remains in you a residue of what you used to be like by nature before God brought you back to (spiritual) life! </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">In your old nature you used to choose only evil continually. You were not able to choose the spiritual good at all. But now that you are born of the Spirit you are able to choose the spiritual good and to shun the evil. But the trouble is that you don’t always refuse the evil, do you? Sin still clings to us like cigarette smoke long after the cigarette has been extinguished!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But the good news is that in Glory we will not be <i>able</i>to sin, which is to say that there will be absolutely no residue of sin within us in glory. In Glory we will have a perfect good nature and unchangeable freewill forever. This is because in Glory He who has begun a good work in you will have completed it. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">A.A. Hodge puts it like this: “Adam was holy and unstable. Unregenerate men are unholy and stable; that is, fixed in unholiness. Regenerate men have two opposite moral tendencies contesting for empire in their hearts. They are cast about between them, yet the tendency graciously implanted gradually in the end perfectly prevails. Glorified men are holy and stable. All are free, and therefore responsible.” (The Confession of Faith, p. 166).</span></span></div><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Conclusion,</span></span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We have seen above that <i>freewill </i>and <i>ability</i>are two different things. A person with a corrupt nature, like a bad tree, is not able to produce any <i>spiritual</i> or <i>good</i> fruit. Nor does the person with the corrupt nature wish or will to produce spiritual fruit. For that, when you think about it, would be to go against his nature – his <i>fallen</i>or <i>sinful </i>nature. This would be to violate that person’s freewill!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">A person’s freewill is violated if that person is forced to go or to do anything against his will, whether good or evil. Therefore at no time, past, present, or future does God interfere with man’s freewill. But this does not in any way suggest that man is sovereign in his own salvation. For God alone is sovereign in all things, including salvation. Nor does it mean the God will not change a man’s nature. But it does mean that God holds man accountable for the exercise of his freewill. He holds man accountable, i.e., responsible for all the deeds done in his body whether good or evil.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Therefore, God is inviting <i>you</i> to repent and believe in the Gospel while there is still time. If <i>you</i> will not repent and believe in the Gospel then <i>you</i> have proven the Bible true when it says that <i>you</i> are not able to refuse the evil and choose the spiritual good. And if you <i>are</i> repenting and believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then you are proving that <i>you</i> are able to refuse the evil and choose the spiritual good. But either way, you are testifying that it is <i>God by His grace alone</i> who saves us, because only <i>He</i> can give you a new nature and a new spirit.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Doesn’t Scripture ask: “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to evil” Jeremiah 13:23.</span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-40263608132452749992017-08-28T16:53:00.001+10:002017-08-28T17:12:00.772+10:00SPACE & TIME<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Space &amp; Time</span></span></b></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">The title sequence of the old Star Trek television series began with the words, ‘Space, the final frontier.’ The Starship Enterprise’s Captain James T. Kirk was to be to outer-space as were Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett to the American frontier! But what is space, this ‘final frontier’? </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">The Bible refers to space as ‘the heavens’, e.g. ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ and ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork’ Genesis 1:1 &amp; Psalm 19:1. We see then that space is something that God made and we see that He made it in the beginning of time. Thus, both time and space are creatures that God created. Unlike God, neither is eternal. Time began the very moment God created space into which He placed matter.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Vincent van Gogh putting his The Starry Night on canvas is a faint reflection of God creating the heavens and the earth in space and time. ‘He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name’ Psalm 147:4. Truly the heavens do declare the glory of God, ‘“To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing’ Isaiah 40:25-26. But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why </i>did God create space and time? </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GxTz1qrhoFQ/WaO9tqVRFVI/AAAAAAAABuk/DJcOxj6LBcA2nywRy1f5H3yOPqYOpbF4gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6617%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GxTz1qrhoFQ/WaO9tqVRFVI/AAAAAAAABuk/DJcOxj6LBcA2nywRy1f5H3yOPqYOpbF4gCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6617%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">We’ve already seen that God created the heavens for His own glory. However, Scripture reveals that God is also the great ‘Watchmaker’. ‘Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years…”’ Genesis 1:14. Therefore to explore outer-space is to explore the inner-workings of God’s great cosmic clock! Is the ‘final frontier’ a cuckoo clock then? Or is it like William Paley’s old fob-watch with Roman numerals on its face? Or a LED (Light Emitting Diode) digital watch perhaps? As <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> trek the starry night does the ‘final frontier’ contain other planets capable of sustaining alien life-forms? On your happy trails will you wrestle a ‘Martian’ as Davy Crockett wrestled a bear? </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">As you ride the ridges of space keep the following verse in mind, ‘The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth He has given to mankind’ Psalm 115:16. Plant a flag on the moon, on Mars, and fly ‘to infinity and beyond’, but always remember who made the ‘final frontier’ and who owns it. Joseph said, ‘Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me’ Genesis 37:9b. One greater than Joseph is here! Everything bows before Him. ‘Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Philippians 2:9-11. ‘But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman’ Galatians 4:4. Jesus is the ‘heavenly Man’ 1 Corinthians 15:48. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>He said, ‘I am from above … I am not of this world’ John 8:23. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Space and time belong to Jesus. Nay, Jesus <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>space and time! He is the ‘final frontier’. Explore Him!</span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-14866014813705769122017-08-21T14:48:00.001+10:002017-08-22T12:55:56.368+10:00WORSHIP AND THE SABBATH DAY<span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><span style="color: #cccccc;">Excerpted from my eBook Holding Fast Our Confession:</span>&nbsp;https://www.amazon.com/HOLDING-FAST-CONFESSION-Cullan-McKinlay-ebook/dp/B006ZSV90Q/ref=la_B006NTVAWY_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1503370436&amp;sr=1-2<br /><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">WORSHIP AND THE SABBATH-DAY</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">(See Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 21, paras 7-8)</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Introduction</span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The Apostle Paul in Romans 4:11 refers to Abraham as the “father of all those who believe.” While Abraham was yet childless, i.e., before he was a father, the Lord brought him outside and said, “‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” Genesis 15:5.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Now the point the Lord was making to Abraham surely was that the One who created and put all those stars in the night sky is more than able to give Abraham offspring innumerable. Abraham looked at the stars and the very next verse says, “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” </span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">What is it about the starry night sky that stirs in us a sense of belief and awe? If you’ve ever looked at the stars while in the Australian outback or some other deserted place, you’ll feel the need to worship bubble up from somewhere deep within you. Why is this? Well, it’s because the law or light of nature shows forth that there is a God and that He ought to be worshipped. Isn’t this one of the illustrations the Lord used to remind Job of who He, the Lord, is?&nbsp; The Lord said to Job, “Can you bind the cluster of Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? Job 38:31-33.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">So, when we look at the stars we are compelled to think of their Creator. And as we do so we see something of the awesomeness of the Creator. In a word, to look at the stars is to be reminded that God is Creator and we are mere creatures of His creation. The welling up of worship from within is based exactly on that principle: the lesser worships and serves the greater. And who is greater than He who made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them?</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">So, we may safely conclude then, that the law of nature, or the light of the things God has made (including us), shows us that a due proportion of time should be set apart for the worship of God.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">What we’re mainly concerned with in the following is the proportion of time set apart for worship that is commonly called the Sabbath Day or the Lord’s Day.”</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The Creation Sabbath</span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We always need to keep in mind the origin of the Sabbath or Lord’s Day – lest we forget! Like a fence-post imbedded in wet concrete becomes a solid and immovable pillar, so the Christian Sabbath is set in the very beginning of creation. The Christian Sabbath is the Creation Sabbath. It is the Creation Sabbath after the redemption of the fallen Creation has been completed. But before we examine the Christian Sabbath or Lord’s Day we must consider the pillar of the Creation Sabbath that remained even after man sinned by breaking the everlasting Covenant. </span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">When Adam ate the forbidden fruit he broke the Law, i.e., the Ten Commandments God had written upon his heart upon man’s creation. All Ten, including the 4<sup>th</sup> Commandment written on man’s heart before the Fall would have been written in positive terms because man had not yet fallen. The 4<sup>th</sup> Commandment would have read something like this: <i>Worship God as He will be worshipped.</i></span></span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Now, before the Fall Adam would have known the times when to worship God. And in particular he would have known from the light or law of nature what day God had set aside to be worshipped. We’ve already noted the stars when we mentioned Abraham. Well, if you were to look at Genesis 1:14 you would see that, among other things, the stars and planets in the sky are a giant clock, if you will. Genesis 1:14, “Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years…’” So, man before the Fall would have been able to count the days, weeks, months and years simply by looking at the starry night sky. </span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Now, we can’t know how much the curse God put on the fallen creation affected time, but we suppose that before the Fall each week could be measured by the phases of the moon. With reference to the stars the moon completes one revolution in an elliptical orbit about the earth in 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, and 11.5 seconds. And to complete an entire lunar orbit, going through each of its weekly or quarter phases it takes 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.8 seconds.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Why am I telling you this? Well, so that you can see that from the very beginning of creation man, who was created on the sixth day, knew which day was the Sabbath or Lord’s Day. It was one day set apart in every cycle of seven. </span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Look at it this way: God created Adam and made Eve from his rib on the sixth day of creation week. Genesis 2:1-3 says, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">So, we see that God had worked for six days and rested on the seventh day. Therefore God has set a pattern for His creation and man to follow. Man and God’s creation are to labour six days and, like God, rest every seventh day. But don’t miss the important words of Genesis 2:3, “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it…” So, God then, has given a special status to one day of every seven. He has blessed that day and He has sanctified or declared it a holy day.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Now, we’ve already mentioned that God had made Adam and Eve on the sixth day. God made Eve from Adam’s rib after Adam had considered and named all the animals. Not one of those animals was comparable to Adam. But the point I make is that Eve was made after Adam had considered all the animals. Therefore the sixth day would have been getting on towards evening before Eve was made.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">So, the newly-weds, Adam and Eve got to spend their honeymoon night under a romantic star-lit sky. But did Adam have to turn to his bride Eve and say, “Honey, I need to get some sleep, I’ve got some gardening work to do in the morning”? No, because the next day was the Lord’s Day. The next day was the Creation Sabbath. God was still creating on the sixth day and wouldn’t finish His work until the end of the sixth day, Genesis 2:2.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Adam and Eve were part of God’s creation work on the sixth day. Thus we see then that, though God’s holy and blessed day was the final day of a period of seven, it was the first day of the week for Adam and Eve. Therefore Adam and Eve would very easily be able to count off the days from Lord’s Day to Lord’s Day. They would begin each week with worship on God’s holy and blessed day – the Creation Sabbath.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">God’s Law written on man’s heart would testify that Adam ought to worship the Creator. And the stars on their courses would let him know when to prepare for the Lord’s Day. Now, that’s all very well pre-Fall, but what happened when Adam broke God’s Law? Well, we know that God didn’t abandon mankind. Neither did He abandon the day He had set apart for man’s rest.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The Christian Sabbath</span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We’ve already noted that the Christian Sabbath is the Creation Sabbath. However it is the Creation Sabbath after the redemption of the Fallen creation. Before the Fall the Creation Sabbath signalled nothing of redemption. It was all to do with creation – an unfallen world doesn’t need to be redeemed.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Another way of saying this is that the newly created world was not in need of re-creation. We use the word ‘recreation’ to speak of a time of refreshment and renewing. To be sure, we tend to think of recreation as a time of fun and amusement. However, if we compare the day of rest before the Fall with the day of rest after the Fall we’ll see that both speak of a time of refreshment and renewing – the day of rest after the Fall much more so.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">So, we’re saying that the Christian Sabbath is the re-creation or new-creation Sabbath. The new creation began with the resurrection of the new and replacement Adam, Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus Christ brings mankind to the point (and, of course, beyond!) where Adam would have been had he not sinned. In other words, as Adam and his new wife began their week together on the first day of the completed creation, i.e., the Lord’s Day, so Christ and His bride began their week together of the first day of the new creation, i.e., Resurrection Day or the Lord’s Day.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">God rested from all His labours at the end of the week, so the God-man Jesus Christ rested from all His labours in the tomb at the end of the week. Matthew in his Gospel account says in Matthew 28:1, “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.” So we see then that something wonderful happened on the first day of the week. Mary Magdalene found the tomb to be empty because Christ had risen!</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The Psalmist speaks of this wonderful day – the Resurrection Day, the Christian Sabbath - in Psalm 118:22-25: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.”</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Christ, the Rock of our salvation from whom flow rivers of living water, has brought us prosperity. Which is to say that He has brought us new life – He has brought us a new creation – re-creation. He has redeemed this fallen creation and has brought it new life on the first day of the week – Resurrection Day. He is the chief cornerstone of the new creation.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The first Adam had not laboured for six days before he started his new week. And neither do we labour before we start our new week. Like Adam and Eve we begin the new week refreshed in the Lord. Therefore the Creation Sabbath has been restored for man by and through the resurrection of the Last Adam, Jesus Christ.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Jesus says in Mark 2:27&amp;28, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” If Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath He has the authority to change the Sabbath day from the end of the week to its beginning. Therefore the Old Testament end-of-the-week Sabbath ended and the New Testament beginning-of-the-week Sabbath began the day of His resurrection.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Now, we’ve been labouring hard to demonstrate that the weekly Sabbath is a creation ordinance. In other words, the weekly Sabbath did not arrive on the planet earth at the time of Moses. The weekly Sabbath therefore is for all men everywhere to enjoy to the glory of God.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">However, what did arrive at the time of Moses were certain ceremonial laws pertaining to God’s people at that time. These were attached to the Creation Sabbath. These ceremonial laws, which were typologically redemptive, were abrogated by Christ. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q1bY56Wnj3A/WZpl_WjR02I/AAAAAAAABuU/_PZr140BTsQCqOqex_exFbrNuwpwRfmNgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_7851%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q1bY56Wnj3A/WZpl_WjR02I/AAAAAAAABuU/_PZr140BTsQCqOqex_exFbrNuwpwRfmNgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_7851%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">What God spoke on Mount Sinai and wrote down on two tablets of stone is His eternal Moral Law. The Ten Commandments are God’s positive and perpetual commandments. And as you know the Fourth Commandment or Sabbath Commandment is part of that Moral Law.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Exodus 20:8-11 records the Fourth Commandment as part of God’s Moral Law: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The 4<sup>th</sup> Commandment as recorded in Deuteronomy 5:12-15, interestingly focuses more on redemption than creation. But we see in Exodus 20 that the 4<sup>th</sup> Commandment itself harks back to the six days God laboured at creation, resting on the seventh.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">And notice the word “remember” at the beginning of the commandment. That word “remember” presupposes that the people already knew what the Sabbath is. Indeed we see the Sabbath referred to in Exodus 16, which was before the giving of the Decalogue. Speaking of gathering manna, Moses says in Exodus 16:26, “Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We don’t have time to talk about all the sevens, including the seven-day or weekly periods, mentioned throughout God’s dealing with Noah. The briefest examples of this would be to mention in passing, e.g., Genesis 7:10, “And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.” And see Noah wait seven days between sending out the dove after the raven from the ark etc. The point being that the saints knew there was a weekly Sabbath even before God gave the Ten Commandments.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Now, we’ve mentioned that the 4<sup>th</sup>Commandment as part of the Ten Commandments harkens the hearer of it back to creation. What happens when you look at the starry night skies? The urge to worship starts bubbling up from within, doesn’t it? The LORD took Abraham outside and had him count the stars. Does not the 4<sup>th</sup> Commandment when carefully considered engender the urge to worship? “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.” Thus the Sabbath Day is about worship – worshipping the Creator and Redeemer of the world.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Now, we’ve already alluded to the temporary Sabbath provisions that were later given by God to Moses – after He had given His Ten Commandments. The Lord’s Apostle Paul refers to these temporary Sabbath provisions in Colossians 2:8-17. I’ll just mention Colossians 2:16&amp;17 as it mentions the word “sabbaths”: “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The “festival” refers to the four Old Testament Sabbath Festivals or Feasts. These were tied to annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem – there were four of them (Deuteronomy 16:16; John 10:22). The “new moon” is tied to the Sabbath Festivals. The “sabbaths” mentioned there in Colossians 2:16, while pertaining to the Festivals, also, we believe, pertains to the way the weekly Sabbath was to be obeyed with all its ceremonial or typological or redemptive aspects.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The Old Testament Sabbaths were shadows of the Christ to come. Therefore now that the Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing in His wings, the Old Testament shadows have fled. Which is to say that Christ has “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us.” Colossians 2:14. But, as the writer to the Hebrews says, “There remains therefore a rest [a <i>sabbatismos</i>, i.e., a keeping of a Sabbath] for the people of God.” Hebrews 4:9. This keeping of a Sabbath is what we are calling the Christian Sabbath or the “Lord’s Day” as referred to by the Apostle John in Revelation 1:10.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Now, by keeping in mind that the Christian Sabbath is the restoration of the Creation or Edenic Sabbath we should be able to note certain differences between it and the Mosaic weekly Sabbath. When we say that the Sabbath Moses was involved in has been done away with, we are not saying that the 4<sup>th</sup> Commandment has been done away with. The 4<sup>th</sup>Commandment or Sabbath Commandment remains because it is part of God’s perpetual Moral Law, (Hebrews 4:9). However, the Mosaic covenant has been superseded by the New Covenant.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">When Moses led the people of Israel out from their bondage in Egypt the Mosaic Sabbath typified <i>redemptive</i> rest. The Sabbath rest they were to gain by entering the Promised Land, i.e., the Land of Canaan typified their future reward at the end of their laborious journey. So, under Moses the weekly Sabbath pictured redemption – i.e., being released from the hard labour of their slavery in Egypt. And the Land of Canaan was the symbol of Sabbath rest. This was the inheritance promised to Abraham – the place where the people of God were to dwell in safety and have rest from their enemies round about, Deuteronomy 12:10.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Now, these two things, the weekly Sabbath and the ‘Sabbath’ or Rest in the Land of Milk and Honey, as already noted, were tokens or symbols of something far greater. These were typifying what the great Redeemer was coming to do. He was coming to set His people free from their bondage to sin by setting them and creation free from its bondage to the curse of corruption and decay of sin. This is what the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has accomplished and achieved. The things promised in the weekly Mosaic Sabbath and the Sabbath rest in the Promised Land have been fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. </span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Where does this leave the Sabbath in our own day? Well, we’ve seen that the Sabbath has been the day of rest and worship from the very beginning of creation. The Christian Sabbath still points to the God’s eternal rest as it has from the beginning. Therefore there still remains a typical or symbolic aspect to the Christian Sabbath or Lord’s Day. But: as it was for Adam and Eve, so it is for us.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We begin the week rejoicing in the company and presence of God! But the difference between Adam and Eve and the saints today, is that the Covenant blessings promised to mankind have already begun to be poured out by Jesus Christ. He has kept the covenantal Sabbath perfectly. He has entered into God’s eternal rest. And He has opened up the way for us to enter into that rest.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The Land of Canaan has become the whole earth, nay, the whole world – the cosmos! The heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them are ours in Jesus Christ. Therefore we gather together every seventh day to give thanks to God for Jesus Christ and to give thanks for His resurrection. Every Sunday is Easter Sunday for the Christian! We gather on the day He was resurrected, for that is the day that the new world began. Jesus Christ is its first fruits. </span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The resurrected Jesus met with His gathered disciples on the first day of the week. He met with them again on the first day of the week a week i.e., seven days later. He poured out His Holy Spirit on His gathered church on the first day of the week – the Day of Pentecost. The saints gathered to break bread on the first day of the week, Acts 20:7. Paul the Apostle preached a sermon until midnight on the first day of the week. He told the saints to take up their offering or collection on the first day of the week, 1 Corinthians 16:1&amp;2.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath – it is the Lord’s Day, Revelation 1:10. And it is the day that is to be kept holy to the Lord. We are to prepare our hearts to worship God on that day. Therefore we need to organise our everyday affairs to accommodate the worship of God on the whole of that day.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">And we should strive to be involved in private worship as individual and family - if you have one. And of course we mustn’t forsake the gathering of the saints for worship, Hebrews 10:25. The whole of the day should be set apart for worship, while not neglecting those duties of necessity and mercy – from milking the cows to looking after the sick.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Conclusion</span></i></b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The Lord through His Prophet Isaiah spoke of the new covenant with its Christian Sabbath: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honourable, and shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 58:13&amp;14.</span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Call the Sabbath a delight, and delight yourselves in the LORD.</span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-4073180455348346352017-08-10T15:19:00.001+10:002017-08-10T15:35:53.089+10:00MUSIC<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Music</span></span></b></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">During worship tone-deaf church congregants find solace in the words, ‘Make a joyful noise unto the LORD’ Psalm 100:1a. ‘Noise’ here means calling out loud. According to Scripture the angels did something like this when they worshipped God as He was busy forming creation: ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? … when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ Job 38:4a;7. One would expect angels to be tuneful at this point in time! But let us note that music began with the beginning of creation and that it was used first to worship God. Among these ‘morning stars’ or ‘sons of God’ who joyfully praised God was the angel who subsequently would fall and become known as Satan (i.e., the Accuser). </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Like human beings, angels are not eternal beings. Thus they are creatures of creation. Scripture does not tell us upon which of the six days of creation they were made. Clearly, however, they were created before God made Adam on the sixth day. Though translations of the original Hebrew differ, the following verse is believed to refer to Satan: ‘You were in Eden, the garden of God … the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers’ Ezekiel 28:13-14a. If ‘timbrels and pipes’ is an accurate translation, then ‘the anointed cherub who covers’ took his ‘timbrels and pipes’ and began using them for something other than praising God! What influence he had on ‘Jubal … the father of all those who play the harp and flute’ (Genesis 4:21) one can only guess. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Paul calls Satan, ‘the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient’ Ephesians 2:2. Does this mean that all songs and music that do not directly praise God are under the influence of the evil one? Well, all musical compositions ought to glorify God. However, this is not to say it all must outwardly mention God. But it does mean that all music ought to be within God’s moral parameters. In other words, music ought never be used to promote evil!</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbL-RGeYZXs/WYvs6m8_LHI/AAAAAAAABuE/38AhTWjb6GYfh2Kb5jwFa3bhJ4BaeMWBQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8318%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbL-RGeYZXs/WYvs6m8_LHI/AAAAAAAABuE/38AhTWjb6GYfh2Kb5jwFa3bhJ4BaeMWBQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_8318%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="213" /></a></span></div><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Many years ago the ‘timbrels [or ‘tabrets, i.e. tambourines] and pipes’ passage was utilised by one section of the church to pushback against those who began installing organs in churches to accompany congregational singing. To this day some (i.e. Exclusive Psalmodists) believe that only items from the 150 Psalms of the Bible ought to be used in worship services – accompanied by no musical instruments whatever. Others would counter this view and advocate for inclusion of other appropriate songs with musical accompaniment by using such as the following verse (that refers to those presently in Heaven), ‘And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne’ Revelation 14:2b-3a. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">And did the church shift her focus from directing worship to God when it began ‘singing the Gospel’? Are God’s people singing the Gospel vertically to God or are they singing it horizontally to their neighbour? </span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">It has been said that ‘the devil is in the detail.’ We ought to be careful that he’s not in the music too! But know that Jesus, the Mediator between God and man, is able to transform and to make perfect every flat note of praise that comes from the mouths of His people as it rises from earth and filters through Him unto ‘our Father, which art in Heaven’!</span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-16905642205321062022017-08-08T17:33:00.000+10:002017-08-08T17:35:23.932+10:00Jesus & A Donkey<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” <span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">J</span></span>esus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”<span style="margin: 0px;"><sup> </sup></span></span></span></div><div align="center" style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;">At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!” John 12:12-19.</span></span></div><div align="center" style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">JESUS &amp; A DONKEY</span></span></b></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, a young donkey. They call this “The Triumphal Entry.” This is when the people, not the religious people who wore fancy robes and hung around the Temple at Jerusalem, but the everyday common people, proclaimed Jesus to be their King: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Why were the common people so enamoured with Jesus? Well, why wouldn’t you be? You’d be waving palm fronds as a sign of praise before Him too if you had seen or heard about Him raising Lazarus from the dead! It says, “Now the crowd that was with Him when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that He had performed this sign, went out to meet Him.”&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So here’s a Man, Jesus, who can raise people from the dead, even people who have been dead as long as four days, as was Lazarus. They were calling Jesus the King of Israel. But wait a minute? What’s this? “See, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” A king riding on a donkey, not even a full-grown donkey, a donkey’s colt! For it says, “<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">J</span></span>esus found a young donkey and sat on it.”&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">I like donkeys! P liked donkeys too! She liked Eeyore from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. A.A. Milne was the author of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories in which Eeyore the donkey featured. He got the idea for Winnie-the-Pooh from his son’s teddy-bear.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, had named his toy bear after Winnie, a bear he used to see at the London Zoo. (Pooh apparently was a swan he met when he was on holiday.) Anyway, Winnie, the bear in the London Zoo, had come from a place in Manitoba, Canada, called Winnipeg – my three children were born there! Winnipeg was shortened to Winnie, Winnie-the-Pooh.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">We probably all can each relate to at least one of the characters who make up Winnie-the-Pooh’s friends. Maybe it’s Winnie-the-Pooh himself, where you just bumble along through life but there’s always a golden honey-pot at the end. Or maybe you’re a bit like Piglet, a bit afraid of everything. Or maybe Tigger, all bouncy and bubbly, and there’s Kanga and Roo, Owl and Rabbit and others, including P’s favourite, Eeyore the donkey.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">I don’t know what it was about Eeyore that P could identify with. Eeyore the donkey had a detachable tail and he would invariably lose it somewhere and all his friends would have to help him find it again. Then Christopher Robin would pin the tail on the donkey.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ygmiJrnFZvk/WYlo2V8bZhI/AAAAAAAABt0/YJwcenlm73gJC8d-3FR8uOq2h8cBdsimwCLcBGAs/s1600/Eeyore-Winnie-the-Pooh-Wallpaper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ygmiJrnFZvk/WYlo2V8bZhI/AAAAAAAABt0/YJwcenlm73gJC8d-3FR8uOq2h8cBdsimwCLcBGAs/s320/Eeyore-Winnie-the-Pooh-Wallpaper.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><br /><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And here’s a quote I found that illustrates how Eeyore thought about things: </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">“The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, ‘Why?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Wherefore?’ and sometimes he thought, ‘Inasmuch as which?’ and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.”&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So we see that sometimes Eeyore would think sadly to himself, “Why?” We ask questions like that at times like this – Why? We don’t always have a ready answer.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>Eeyore would most probably say as he often says, “O well – Thanks for noticin’ me.”</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">But more importantly, what would Jesus say? Well, as He entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, the people were certainly noticing Him! And He’d say what He said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus who He raised from the dead, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.”&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">We’ve already read: “At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.”</span></span></div><div style="margin: 16px 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Are any of us able to understand all of this, any of it? Are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> able, as it were, to pin the tail on the donkey? Here’s a Man who can raise people from the dead! Here’s a Man who raised Himself from the dead! Here’s a Man who is promising to resurrect you from the dead just for believing in Him! No wonder the common people are calling Him “King”!&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The Bible teaches that Jesus is God in the flesh, that God the Son became a human being. Here’s God, the King of kings riding on a lowly donkey! He’s not riding on a white charger or in a golden chariot. He is “</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">seated on a donkey’s colt.” He’s a humble and gentle Saviour of all who put their trust in Him. If you draw near to Him He will comfort you in your grief.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">(Eeyore picture from web)</span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-89562320532672295472017-08-05T14:20:00.001+10:002017-08-05T14:20:53.611+10:00CORRECTING CALVIN’S CRITICS<span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><b>CORRECTING CALVIN’S CRITICS</b></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">If you have or have ever had any enemies, you will know that they tend to tell lies about you and invariably paint you in a bad light. John Calvin (1509-64) had and still has lots of enemies. No doubt some hate this man merely because they have listened to some of the lies that have been spread about him.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R46H8ank1PU/WYVHTeW29EI/AAAAAAAABtk/hsbS3EuLkgUC4hl4qikMhwybo99WKYvEwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6677%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R46H8ank1PU/WYVHTeW29EI/AAAAAAAABtk/hsbS3EuLkgUC4hl4qikMhwybo99WKYvEwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6677%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">One of the old canards constantly trotted out by Calvin haters involves a man called Michael Servetus a contemporary of Calvin. As do modern day so-called Jehovah’s Witnesses Servetus followed Arius’s (256-336) view of a non-divine Jesus. In other words, Servetus was in denial that Jesus Christ was the middle Person of the Trinity now in human flesh. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Says John Eidsmoe in footnote 9 on page 1044 of his<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Historical and Theological Foundations of Law</i>, Volume III Reformation and Colonial, (Nordskog Publishing Inc.) – see:</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.nordskogpublishing.com/product/historical-and-theological-foundations-of-law/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.nordskogpublishing.com/product/historical-and-theological-foundations-of-law/</span></a></span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Calvin’s critics claim he engineered the execution of Servetus, but as J. Steven Wilkins demonstrates, the Geneva city council tried, convicted, and sentenced Servetus without Calvin’s involvement. Servetus had already been sentenced to death in France but had escaped; Calvin had warned Servetus not to come to Geneva, telling him he would not leave the city alive. Several Catholic cities wanted to try Servetus for heresy, and when the Geneva authorities gave him a choice of being tried in Geneva or being sent to Vienna, Servetus chose Geneva. The council found him guilty of denying the Trinity and teaching and printing other false doctrines and sentenced him to be burned at the stake. Calvin tried unsuccessfully to persuade the council to commute the sentence from burning to beheading; failing in that, he visited Servetus in his last hours and prayed with him. Significantly, Servetus was the only heretic to be burned in Geneva during Calvin’s lifetime, while thousands of heretics were executed elsewhere. J. Steven Wilkins, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Calvin v. Servetus </i>(1998); William Wileman, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Calvin and Servetus.</i></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Francis Nigel Lee writes of the same Servetus incident,</span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Servetus had blasphemously described the most blessed Trinity as a three-headed dog and a monster from hell! Yet even at a time when the Catholic Inquisition was seeking to slay Servetus and every Protestant city in Europe had expelled him or condemned him, Calvin corresponded with him and sent him a copy of his Institutes. For Calvin sought to win Servetus to Christ!</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Knowing full well that Calvin favoured the punishment of exile for heretics and the death penalty for blasphemers, the wretched Servetus arrogantly made his way to Geneva planning to overthrow Calvin and de-christianize the city. Put on trial by the civil magistrates of Geneva (and not by Calvin who was neither a judge nor a citizen of that city) Servetus was found guilty of blasphemy and sedition and sentenced to death by burning. Calvin unsuccessfully tried to get Servetus to recant his errors. When Servetus would not recant, Calvin pleaded for a milder form of punishment. And later still, Calvin also pleaded with Servetus in his death cell to get right with God and accept the Divine Christ as his Lord and Master!</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Rarely in the annals of history has so much evangelical concern ever been shown to such a monstrous miscreant, as Calvin showed to Michael Servetus, enemy of Christ and Christianity and of public law and order! Even during that highly intolerant age, the gentle Calvin tenderly yet firmly presented Christ and His salvation to the very man who had sought to destroy him!” – Francis Nigel Lee, <i>John Calvin True Presbyterian</i>, Jesus Lives Series, pp. 17-18.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Gerald Christian Nordskog made the very observant connection between Calvin visiting Servetus in jail and Dr Lee (just quoted above) visiting his father’s murderer in jail! Says Gerald,</span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“As our dear brother Francis Nigel Lee was so compassionate and loving to&nbsp;his dad’s murderer, leading the man to Christ while he was in jail....... he&nbsp;obviously was touched by this Calvin pursuing the evil man even in jail.&nbsp;Dr. Lee had the same characteristics in this regard as the great theologian of&nbsp;Calvin's Institutes.” (In an email to me.)</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">(See Gerald Christian Nordskog’s Christian Books Website at Nordskog Publishing Inc.: <a href="https://www.nordskogpublishing.com/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.nordskogpublishing.com/</span></a></span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">(See Dr. Lee’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brothers Because of Bloodshed </i>at: </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.dr-fnlee.org/brothers-because-of-bloodshed/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">http://www.dr-fnlee.org/brothers-because-of-bloodshed/</span></a></span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">And Dr. Lee’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sovereignty of God in the Salvation of my Father’s Slayer </i>at: </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.dr-fnlee.org/the-sovereignty-of-god-in-the-salvation-of-my-fathers-slayer/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">http://www.dr-fnlee.org/the-sovereignty-of-god-in-the-salvation-of-my-fathers-slayer/</span></a></span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">So, far from being the flaming-torch wielding burner of heretics as portrayed by Calvin-haters and the ignorant, Calvin was instead a lover of all God’s image-bearers, including those who vehemently disagreed with him such as Servetus, and evangelically and compassionately sought their humane treatment and, if not more, just as importantly, their salvation.</span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Allen Guelzo says in a review of Alister E. McGrath’s <i>A Life of John Calvin: A Study of the Shaping of Western Culture,</i></span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“</span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">There is no sense in which McGrath’s Calvin could be mistaken for a Geneva Jim Jones: Calvin had little personal authority with the city council and no legal political standing or following (as a foreigner, he had no vote or voice in Genevan politics), and could rely only on the persuasiveness of his own ideas and preaching to carry his reforms forward. In making these points, McGrath clearly throws the notorious arrest and execution of Michael Servetus into the lap of Geneva’s secular leadership at a time when that leadership was hardly more sympathetic to Calvin than it was to Servetus; and he rightly stresses (as other biographers have not) that Servetus’ execution was due as much to his anarchical Anabaptism as to disagreements with Calvin on the Trinity.” (<i>A Life of John Calvin: A Study of the Shaping of Western Culture</i> by Alister E. McGrath, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990) Reviewed by Allen Guelzo. See:&nbsp;</span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><u><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=05-04-038-b" target="_blank"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=05-04-038-b</span></a></span></u></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Says Professor Roy Clouser,</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Re the execution of Servetus: Since Calvin is often accused of ordering Servetus be burned at the stake, I think it apropos to mention that it is one of the many lies about the Reformers that has been repeated over &amp; over.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“First, it is important to note that Calvin never held a political office in Geneva. Indeed, as a foreign national and not a Swiss citizen, he was not even eligible for office. Geneva was ruled by a town Council, which hired Calvin to perform certain duties. One of these was to interview Servetus after he’d been asked to leave Geneva &amp; refused. I have read (a translation of) the letter that Calvin wrote to the Council following the interview. In it he confirms that Servetus is a heretic, but recommends that ‘the sentence not be carried out’. I also found the letter he wrote to the Council after it condemned Servetus to be burned. In it Calvin said that if they insisted on executing Servetus it should not be by burning ‘which is a cruel and inhumane method of execution’. The council again ignored Calvin.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“BTW, I’ve also read accusations about how Calvin was supposed to have used state power to enforce church attendance. The fact is, however, that he opposed the political party that wanted to make the church of Geneva (in which he was a pastor) the state church. When that party was elected anyway, Calvin left Geneva for 6 years in protest and returned only after it was voted out. He regarded such a law was an intolerable intrusion of the state into matters that belonged properly to the church.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“There is a fine recent book on the Reformation that I’ve found helpful titled ‘The Reformation World’, Ed Pettegree London: Routledge, 2000). (The letters were contained in a multi-volume set titled ‘Calvin’s Correspondence’ which I found in the library of Princeton Theological Seminary.)” Letter (10 Oct 2003) from Prof Roy Clouser&nbsp;on ‘Thinknet’ Dooyeweerdian discussion forum.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>In a day when there is so much “Fake News” being bandied around, it is a good and honourable thing to seek the truth of the matter rather than lazily listening to the haters. Always remember that Satan is the father of lies and that Jesus Christ is the Truth. Honour Him!</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">(Photo of two unashamed Calvinists)</span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-53092228248324050122017-07-22T11:16:00.001+10:002017-07-22T11:26:46.899+10:00Compassionate Calvin<span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">(Excerpted from my The Nexus: The True Nature of Nature, which compares and contrasts Darwin's view of nature with that of Calvin):&nbsp;</span></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">https://www.amazon.com/NEXUS-True-Nature-ebook/dp/B006WHGINI/ref=la_B006NTVAWY_1_13?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1500685189&amp;sr=1-13&amp;refinements=p_82%3AB006NTVAWY</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Q3wgUkwD3U/WXKlmKyJUgI/AAAAAAAABtM/33NvT0EgzfYgUSsib0_Tb9d_otJJ_8TlQCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BNexus%2BCover%2BPhoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1194" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Q3wgUkwD3U/WXKlmKyJUgI/AAAAAAAABtM/33NvT0EgzfYgUSsib0_Tb9d_otJJ_8TlQCLcBGAs/s320/The%2BNexus%2BCover%2BPhoto.jpg" width="238" /></span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">John Calvin (1509-64) systematized the Christian Religion at the time when the Church that had become very deformed under the papacy and Roman Catholicism, was being reformed. Reformed Christianity, to which I adhere, began at the time of the great Reformation – a time of getting back to what the Bible really teaches.</span></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 43.2pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Perhaps you have been inoculated against Reformed Christianity and the Christian worldview. Perhaps some portion of misinformation propagated by anti-Christians such as Michel Onfray or Richard Dawkins has so gotten stuck in your craw that it causes you to spit whenever you hear Calvin’s name mentioned! A small sample of the teeth gnashing and vitriol spewing that the name of Calvin causes in some can be found in the following caricature of Calvin&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 43.2pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">and some of his Biblical understandings, as painted by the Darwinist and ‘journalist’ Christopher Hitchens,</span></div></span> <br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 65px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 43.2pt;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Q3wgUkwD3U/WXKlmKyJUgI/AAAAAAAABtM/33NvT0EgzfYgUSsib0_Tb9d_otJJ_8TlQCLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BNexus%2BCover%2BPhoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">"According to the really extreme religious totalitarians, such as John Calvin, who borrowed his awful doctrine from Augustine, an infinity of punishment can be awaiting you even before you are born. Long ago it was written which souls would be chosen or ‘elected’ when the time came to divide the sheep from the goats. No appeal against this primordial sentence is possible, and no good works or profession of faith can save one who has not been fortunate enough to be picked. Calvin’s Geneva was a prototypical totalitarian state, and Calvin himself a sadist and torturer and killer, who burned Servetus (one of the great thinkers and questioners of the day) while the man was still alive. The lesser wretchedness induced in Calvin’s followers, compelled [them] to waste their lives worrying if they had been ‘elected’ or not…"</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hitchens goes on to state that he has had some crazy people phone him ‘with hoarse voices condemning me to death or hell or both’ … And of ‘the eternal blackening of my name by religious frauds and liars.’ Crazy people are crazy whatever their worldview, but, in the interest of truth, sanity, and the un-blackening of the name of John Calvin, Francis Nigel Lee sets the record straight,</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 65px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 43.2pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">"Servetus had blasphemously described the most blessed Trinity as a three-headed dog and a monster from hell! Yet even at a time when the Catholic Inquisition was seeking to slay Servetus and every Protestant city in Europe had expelled him or condemned him, Calvin corresponded with him and sent him a copy of his Institutes. For Calvin sought to win Servetus to Christ!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 65px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 43.2pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">"Knowing full well that Calvin favoured the punishment of exile for heretics and the death penalty for blasphemers, the wretched Servetus arrogantly made his way to Geneva planning to overthrow Calvin and de-christianize the city. Put on trial by the civil magistrates of Geneva (and not by Calvin who was neither a judge nor a citizen of that city) Servetus was found guilty of blasphemy and sedition and sentenced to death by burning. Calvin unsuccessfully tried to get Servetus to recant his errors. When Servetus would not recant, Calvin pleaded for a milder form of punishment. And later still, Calvin also pleaded with Servetus in his death cell to get right with God and accept the Divine Christ as his Lord and Master!</span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "Rarely in the annals of history has so much evangelical concern ever been shown to such a monstrous miscreant, as Calvin showed to Michael Servetus, enemy of Christ and Christianity and of public law and order! Even during that highly intolerant age, the gentle Calvin tenderly yet firmly presented Christ and His salvation to the very man who had sought to destroy him!"</span>&nbsp;</span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-80395736472510594902017-07-11T17:15:00.004+10:002017-07-11T17:27:30.436+10:00TEENAGERS<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Teenagers</span></span></b></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Should parents brace themselves and expect trouble when their children become teenagers? Well, first off it shocks me to hear parents say that they are trying to raise their children without outwardly influencing them, so that they can ‘decide for themselves’ which religion or what they want to believe when they are older! However, the Bible makes it plain that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christian</i> parents are to ‘Train up the child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it’ Proverbs 22:6. To paraphrase in broad terms: ‘Catechise the child on which way you want them to go, and when he starts to sprout a beard or when she begins to menstruate, he or she will continue to obey what you have taught them.’ Thus, Christian parents ought not to expect that little Johnny or Jenny will automatically ‘go off the rails’ at puberty or beyond! </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">But what are teenagers faced with in the ‘real world’? Promiscuity and pregnancy, drug and alcohol-dependency, bawdy-songs? or, as they say, ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll!’? Teens ought not to be left to experiment and make up their own minds about these things. For obviously this simply is asking for trouble. Sex is not evil. Neither are drugs. The same way that not all rock ‘n’ roll consists of bawdy songs! Rather than an outright condemnation of ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’, the Bible simply sets the parameters. Parents are to train up their children in these areas, i.e., warn them of the dangers of the illicit use and abuse of sex and drugs (and drink), and how a lot of modern pop-music accompanies and encourages and even glorifies an ungodly life-style.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">If the old adage is true that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, then teenagers must be impressionable! If older people get ‘set in their ways’, then we must point our children in the way they should go during their formative years. Teenagers apparently love to leave the church in droves. How should we retain our youth? Introduce rock ‘n’ roll sounding bands? ‘The Scriptural formula for keeping teenagers in Church is to catechize them as infants.’ Richard Bacon.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jlE3RMGMFYA/WWR6uyQX8EI/AAAAAAAABs8/1ATutyekpAIiZOU7Lo1bNW5rax43qG72ACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6601%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jlE3RMGMFYA/WWR6uyQX8EI/AAAAAAAABs8/1ATutyekpAIiZOU7Lo1bNW5rax43qG72ACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6601%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Presbyterians have been making good use of the Westminster Shorter Catechism for well over three hundred years to train up their children in the way they should go. In a series of 107 questions and answers it simply teaches what the Bible has to say about each question raised. E.g., </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Westminster Shorter Catechism 9</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">: ‘Quest. <i>What is the work of creation?</i> <i>Ans. </i>The work of creation is, God’s making all things out of nothing, by the word of His power, in the space of six days, and all very good.’</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> I chose this example to illustrate something of the problem teenagers face today. Did God create everything out of nothing? Did He simply command things into being? Did He do it over the space of six days? And was everything ‘very good’ in the beginning? The untrained and unequipped, i.e., the un-catechised teenager, will have all their bones broken in pieces and will be eaten alive if he or she falls into the lion’s den of non-Christian education! But Daniel said, ‘Praise be to the name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are His… He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things… You have given me wisdom and power.’ Daniel 2:20-23.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Teenagers need to know how to negotiate life’s journey. Therefore, let us teach them how to glorify God and enjoy Him forever</span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-33063708567634883392017-06-30T16:48:00.000+10:002017-06-30T17:38:41.268+10:00REST IN PEACE<br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">REST IN PEACE</span></b></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-63RZ0-FLxpY/WVXz4MRVCBI/AAAAAAAABss/SANcq38T4A8xDvVc5WduRlY5Ui3qieOwACLcBGAs/s1600/FullSizeRender%2B%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The other week, Patsy and Helen wanted to know what the title of my little Homily was going to be, so that they could put it into today’s Order of Service. I wasn’t really sure, until I was sitting in Church last Sunday morning. That’s when it just sort of came to me: “Rest In Peace!” I wanted the title to reflect, or at least summarize, the essence of the previous reading, in particular the bit where Jesus says, “</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Come to Me, all <i>you</i> who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For My yoke <i>is</i> easy and My burden is light.”</span></span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Jesus is saying that He will give rest to anyone who comes to Him, that that person will find rest for their soul.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">“</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Come to Me, all <i>you</i> who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Labouring and being heavy laden includes the troubles we face in this life. However, it also means being weighed down by the knowledge of what the Bible calls “sin”, an acute knowing that you don’t measure up to God’s standards. It’s the burden of an awakened conscience, an accusing conscience that gives you no rest – until you come to Jesus!</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-63RZ0-FLxpY/WVXz4MRVCBI/AAAAAAAABss/SANcq38T4A8xDvVc5WduRlY5Ui3qieOwACLcBGAs/s1600/FullSizeRender%2B%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="220" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-63RZ0-FLxpY/WVXz4MRVCBI/AAAAAAAABss/SANcq38T4A8xDvVc5WduRlY5Ui3qieOwACLcBGAs/s1600/FullSizeRender%2B%25283%2529.jpg" style="cursor: move;" /></span></a><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The meaning of this is deep, very deep, deeper than the deepest ocean. It is beautifully summed up in the words of George Matheson’s beautiful hymn:&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">“O, love that wilt not let me go,</span></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I rest my weary soul in Thee;</span></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I give Thee back the life I owe,</span></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">That in Thine ocean depths its flow</span></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">May richer, fuller be.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">The love of Jesus is the type of love that will not let you go. It is an eternal love, a love that lasts forever. That’s why George Matheson could write those words, “I rest my weary soul in Thee!”&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Matheson was born in Glasgow in 1842. He wrote that hymn forty years later, and said, </span></span><i><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">“I am quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes.”</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"> It sort of just came to him on the eve of his sister’s wedding.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Matheson himself had been engaged to be married some twenty years or so earlier. But when his </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">fiancée discovered that he was going blind, and that there was nothing the doctors could do about it, she said that she couldn’t go through life with a blind-man. So she left him! His sister’s wedding reminded him of that tragic time. His sister had looked after him in his years of blindness, and now, by getting married, understandable as it was, she was leaving him too!</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">People will disappoint you. They have their own lives to lead with their own sets of problems, but the love of Jesus will never let you go! You need to rest in Him. His rest is forever. As did George Matheson before him, so Allan Barker has entered into His eternal rest.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">It causes us pain to lose a loved-one. But Jesus says, “</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">For My yoke <i>is</i> easy and My burden is light.” He wants us to come to Him, and to be yoked to Him, as in the old days oxen were yoked or joined together to plough a field or whatever. Jesus says His yoke is easy. It’s easy and light because He does all the heavy-lifting! But you have to open your heart to Him. You have to trust Him, trust His promise, even in times of grief, times when we go through pain.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-63RZ0-FLxpY/WVXz4MRVCBI/AAAAAAAABss/SANcq38T4A8xDvVc5WduRlY5Ui3qieOwACLcBGAs/s1600/FullSizeRender%2B%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="220" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-63RZ0-FLxpY/WVXz4MRVCBI/AAAAAAAABss/SANcq38T4A8xDvVc5WduRlY5Ui3qieOwACLcBGAs/s1600/FullSizeRender%2B%25283%2529.jpg" /></a><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">“Oh, joy that seekest me through pain</span></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I cannot close my heart to Thee;</span></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I trace the rainbow through the rain,</span></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">And feel the promise is not vain,</span></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">That morn shall tearless be.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Allan loved rural Australia. Can you picture a thunderstorm rolling through the Outback? Can you see the ghost gumtrees against the backdrop of dark thunderclouds? Can you hear the sulphur-crested cockatoos shrieking as they flee the deluge? Can you see and smell the steam rising from the hot earth after the storm has passed through? Can you see the magnificent rainbow in the sky?</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">George Matheson said that he changed only one word after he had written his beautiful hymn, because he was asked to. It’s in the line that speaks of the rainbow, the sign of God’s covenant promise. Instead of, “I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">trace</i> the rainbow through the rain” the original had “I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">climb</i> the rainbow through the rain.” Climbing rainbows in the rain gives a picture of hardship, weary toil. The years of weary toil are over for Allan Barker!</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">I visited Allan a few times when he was at the Care Centre in Ferny Grove before he moved down to Victoria. O</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">ne of the things Allan is remembered for is being a Rat of Tobruk. He was twenty-two years old when he was involved in the Siege of Tobruk in1941. Surviving that he then went on to reach the rank of Lieutenant and even living to the right good age of ninety-eight! Wow!&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">One of the downsides to living that long is that you lose a lot of your old friends over the years simply by outliving them! Then Allan lost his wife Daphne (Del) in October 2012. How hard it is to lose the ones we love! And now it’s Allan’s turn. So, we say for Allan, a friend, a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather, a great, great grandfather, and a Rat of Tobruk, “Rest In Peace.”</span></span><br /><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-64846866487225091662017-06-29T17:29:00.002+10:002017-07-01T13:34:37.738+10:00NO CORRUPTION!<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">NO CORRUPTION!</span></b></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">What was Adam like before he sinned? Well, we have acknowledged something just by asking this question, which is that there once was time when Adam was without sin! Therefore, we can safely say that the sinless Adam would be void of all of sin’s corrupting effects on every aspect of his being, body, soul, and spirit. None of us can say that of ourselves, none except Jesus! Indeed, Scripture refers to “the first man Adam” and to Jesus as “the last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45).</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">To sin is to break God’s Law, because “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). Thus, neither the first Adam (pre-Fall) or the last Adam (post-Fall) were lawless, i.e., sinners. Jesus “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” Hebrews 4:15b. It was when Adam ate the forbidden fruit that he (and we) became sinners, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” Romans 5:12. “For the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23a.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Whereas the first Adam subsequently became corrupted, the last Adam always remained uncorrupted, i.e., without the decaying effects of sin, body, soul, and spirit. Scripture says that even in death Jesus’ body saw no corruption! “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’ </i>For David … fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption, but He whom God raised up saw no corruption” Acts 16:34b-35. Thus, even in death the last Adam remained as was the first Adam pre-Fall, i.e., without corruption!</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3FOZ_SA44-8/WVSsMDMtE0I/AAAAAAAABsc/KqhDnNZ2VnUy8A0SE1i-B2zsDQ37jG1TgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6612%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="256" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3FOZ_SA44-8/WVSsMDMtE0I/AAAAAAAABsc/KqhDnNZ2VnUy8A0SE1i-B2zsDQ37jG1TgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_6612%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Did Jesus really die on the cross then? Of course He did! And He died for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our</i> sins, not His own. He had no sin of His own. Whilst nailed to the cross, Jesus said, “Father, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ </i>Having said this, He breathed His last” Luke 23:46. James says that “the body without the spirit is dead” James 2:26. Therefore, according to the Bible, human death occurs when the spirit leaves the body. Then the rot sets in – but not for Jesus! For He “saw no corruption.” Thus, in death, unlike King David and unlike Lazarus, Jesus’ body saw no decay, no putrefaction.</span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">How was it that Jesus saw no corruption after being dead “three days”? Was He cryogenically frozen to preserve His organ tissue? Was He embalmed? No! He was taken down from the cross and had His body wrapped in strips of linen. Then He was laid to rest in a tomb. Let’s just say that even in death God preserved Him, body and soul and spirit. “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘A body You have prepared for Me’</i>” and “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Not one of His bones shall be broken’</i>” and “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘For You will not leave My soul in Hades’</i>” and “Father, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘into Your hands I commit My spirit’ </i>and “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’</i>”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>Hebrews 10:5b; John 19:36b; Acts 16:34b.</span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Jesus was incorruptible <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before</i> He was raised from the dead and He is certainly incorruptible <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after</i>He was raised from the dead! Do you want to know what something with no corruption looks like? Then look to Jesus! </span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Scripture says, “It is not yet revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” 1 John 3:2b. For us then, when we are raised from the dead, just like Jesus, we will have no corruption. “Behold, I tell you a mystery<span style="margin: 0px;">: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—<sup>&nbsp;</sup>in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. </span><span id="en-NKJV-28772" style="margin: 0px;">For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal <i>must</i> put on immortality. </span><span id="en-NKJV-28773" style="margin: 0px;">So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: </span><span style="margin: 0px;">“Death is swallowed up in victory.”</span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"> (1 Cor. 15:51-54).</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">See also:</span><br /><span style="color: green; font-family: calibri;">https://escapethebox.blog/blog/</span><br /><span style="color: #b01200; font-family: calibri;"><br /></span><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"><br /></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-58098875375979932382017-06-02T16:58:00.003+10:002017-06-02T17:07:12.280+10:00MYTHS & MYSTERIES<span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Myths &amp; Mysteries</span></span></b></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-osbO148bx_8/WTEMWe_oL-I/AAAAAAAABsM/KD4IXGV6Vrw6ELGaEbGJxzckxgAxqZkTgCLcB/s1600/IMG_6669%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-osbO148bx_8/WTEMWe_oL-I/AAAAAAAABsM/KD4IXGV6Vrw6ELGaEbGJxzckxgAxqZkTgCLcB/s320/IMG_6669%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Myths and mysteries invariably make me think of mists, (perhaps because the words sound so similar?) And when I think of mists, I think of viewing Scottish scenery in the rain, which in turn reminds me of what the Bible says about faith: ‘Now faith is the confidence of what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.’ Hebrews 11:1. Faith kicks in whenever a tour guide says that there is a mountain over there when all we can see is mist! Thus, there are times when the tour guide needs to be taken at their word!</span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Some call the Bible a book of myths, while others believe its truthfulness but acknowledge that it contains certain mysteries. The Bible claims to have been written by God (albeit using men). Should we take the Bible’s ‘tour guide’ at His word? Or should we just climb back onto the bus out of the rain? If faith is ‘assurance about what we do not see,’ we must presume the tour guide knows what they are talking about.</span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">The tour guide for the Christian is the triune God, Father, Son or Word, Holy Spirit. And God says, ‘In the beginning God [i.e., <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Elohim’</i>, a plurality of Persons, He, in the singular] created the heavens and the earth’ Genesis 1:1. Is this a myth? Is this a mystery? Is this a mountain covered in scotch mist? Well, the Bible says ‘what may be known about God is plain … because God has made it plain … For since the creation of the world [i.e., the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cosmos</i>] God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse’ Romans 1:19-20. The sun, the moon, the planets and the stars, the earth, the sea and the skies, the flora and the fauna, the bens and the glens (i.e., mountains and valleys), you and me – everything, has been made by God. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made’ John 1:1-3. </span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Are you still sitting there on the bus viewing everything through steamed-up windows? Or are you out there walking around looking at things with the ‘tour guide’? Are you sitting there thinking that God is a myth? Or are you walking with the Lord while contemplating the mystery of the Trinity? There’s a big difference between these two ways of thinking. The ‘tour guide’ says of the former that he/she is one of those who ‘suppress the truth by their wickedness’ Romans 1:18. Of the latter He says, ‘The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law’ Deuteronomy 29:29. Yes, how can God be three Persons but one God? How can ‘Our Father which art in heaven … give us [who art on earth] this day our daily bread’? How can the Son/Word, i.e., Jesus, be both God and Man in One Person? And, how can the Spirit of God be everywhere at once while ‘hovering over the waters’?</span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Dear Christian, you are not on a mystery tour. And you have not come to a mist-covered mountain. ‘But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem … You have come to God … to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant’ Hebrew 12:22-24. </span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Dear non-Christian, come off the bus, join us as we explore myths and mysteries with our ‘tour guide.’ He knows all things!</span></span></div><span style="background-color: #cccccc;"></span><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br />Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-41390252773469038622017-05-04T16:44:00.002+10:002017-05-04T16:45:59.709+10:00MOODS<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Moods</span></b></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Some people are moody. You never know what you’re going to get with them. Will they be in an angry or a happy mood today? It can be a bit like Esther approaching the king, will I get my head cut off or will he be pleased to see me? </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Outward things, such as décor and music, may help to set our various moods. From dark and dingy to bright and bubbly, colours and wall-designs may affect our mood. Glenn Miller had a big hit in 1940 with the tune ‘In the Mood.’ Hearing it may put you in the mood for dancing! They had a young David play his harp for King Saul to try to change his mood (1 Samuel 16:23). It has been said that music soothes the soul.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LTDAx2cZV1s/WQrNzC7iCdI/AAAAAAAABr8/B_ASJibD5y8QTcumFnpUzFCPxrlZG9EqQCLcB/s1600/IMG_7786%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LTDAx2cZV1s/WQrNzC7iCdI/AAAAAAAABr8/B_ASJibD5y8QTcumFnpUzFCPxrlZG9EqQCLcB/s320/IMG_7786%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We talk of ‘being under the weather.’ I can relate to this! I lived on the west coast of Scotland for some nineteen years, but have now lived in Queensland, Australia for twenty-odd years. Let me open the curtains in the morning to bright and sunny weather any day, over looking out at cold, wet and windy Scottish weather! Even fickle weather can set your mood for the rest of the day. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">We tend to hum, whistle or sing when we’re happy. ‘Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.’ James 4:13b. In the Bible, it’s obvious that words, tunes and instruments help set the mood. Some Psalms have musical directions in their headings, e.g., ‘To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments.’ Psalm 4. ‘To the Chief Musician. With flutes.’ Psalm 5. ‘To the tune of “Death of the Son.”’ Psalm 9. ‘Set to “The Deer of the Dawn.”’ Psalm 22. ‘Set to “The Lilies.”’ Psalm 45. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Then there are the reactions of others to our actions that can have us either singing praises or singing the blues, such as, receiving applause or receiving boos for something we have done, (e.g., performing, baking a cake, winning or losing at sports). We can be thankful that those two men that Jesus had called </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Boanerges, i.e., Sons of </span></i><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Thunder, are not God. They wanted to send thunderbolts to consume a village full of Samaritans because they would not listen to what had they had to say about Jesus. Jesus ‘turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them’ Luke 9:55-56.</span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="color: #eeeeee;">God is not moody. To be sure, in places the Bible speaks of God as being angry or grieved or pleased or displeased etc., in apparent reaction to certain human activities. And yes, God blesses obedience and curses disobedience. However, since He knows the end from the beginning, there is nothing that can sneak up and surprise Him. He is the Alpha and the Omega. Therefore, He is the mood-setter. ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.’ James 1:17. We can be thankful that God never wakes up in a grumpy mood! For God does not sleep (Psalm 121:4). </span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">God is the Creator, Ruler and Sustainer of all creation. He puts the décor in place (Genesis 1; Psalm 104). He controls the weather (Jonah 1:4; Mark 4:39). And it was He who gave us music. It once said on a wall of an old German opera house: ‘Bach gave us God’s Word. Mozart gave us God’s laughter. Beethoven gave us God’s fire. God gave us Music that we might pray without words.’ </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">May your mood be good.</span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-56109721853001701292017-04-17T16:11:00.002+10:002017-04-17T16:14:54.000+10:00REVIVAL!<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">REVIVAL!</span></span></b></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">What is meant by the word “revival” when Christians use it? I’m sure most would agree that a rival has something to do with the movement of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men, women and children in any community, causing them to be born again, i.e., born of the Spirit.</span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Of the Spirit Jesus says, “</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. </span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span id="en-NKJV-26127" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"> </span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span id="en-NKJV-26128" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;"> </span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span id="en-NKJV-26129" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8.</span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">The most obvious revival recorded in the Bible surely is that of Acts 2, where the “Promise of the Father” (Luke 24:49; cf., Joel 2:28-29) is poured out by the Father and the Son (John 14:26; 15:26) on the church into which about 3,000 souls were added at that time (Acts 2:41, 47).</span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Revival, then, is when God, by His Spirit working with His Word, convicts people of their sins and enables them to believe in God for salvation (Acts 2:8; 11,14-37).</span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Revival is Trinitarian. The Spirit enables people to see the Son who tells us, that to see and to know Him, is to see and to know the Father. (John 14:7; 16:14). God is triune. He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three distinct Persons who are/is one God – a community in eternal covenant with each Other.</span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Jesus says that His sheep hear His voice, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” John 10:27. He is Saviour of His people. “You shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21b. Jesus berated some Jews who were </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">not</span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">His people, “But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.” John 10:26. Thus, revival takes place wherever the Word is faithfully proclaimed, God’s people are present, and the Spirit is pleased to work in their hearts. E.g., “So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood [i.e., a pulpit] which they had made for the purpose... And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people … and the Levites helped the people understand the Law … So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.” Nehemiah 8:4-8 abridged). Thus, though the Spirit works with the Word, the Word needs to be proclaimed. The people need to be given the sense of it, and helped to understand it.</span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">The Gospel message is the means by which Jesus calls His sheep. It is the duty of His Church to ensure that people hear the message of the Gospel. His people attend worship services and Bible gatherings, hear and are taught the Word. Then they take what they have learned and spread it abroad in their respective communities (whether at work, or at rest, or at play).</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wCc1x9PUiIo/WPRciSxNvaI/AAAAAAAABro/pfYiwCSyh5IyYhzy9Fa6QegXwZPUjzGpQCLcB/s1600/IMG_6692%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wCc1x9PUiIo/WPRciSxNvaI/AAAAAAAABro/pfYiwCSyh5IyYhzy9Fa6QegXwZPUjzGpQCLcB/s320/IMG_6692%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Revival only takes place when the Spirit is pleased to move in a special way in a community – like Europe during the Reformation, like America before its War of Independence and during its Civil War, like in Wales during the Welsh Revivals, like on the Isle of Lewis during its revival etc.</span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Revival is not about giving any given community or its members the </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">opportunity</span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;"> of salvation. Rather, like ordinary faithful preaching, it is a means by which the Good Shepherd calls those who are His sheep, those who have been chosen beforehand by the Father (John 17:2, 9; Ephesians 1:4). Therefore, the Church needs to keep on getting the Gospel right. Otherwise the bugle call will be unclear and we may end up like the pre-Reformation Church (darkness!) as opposed to the Post- Reformation Church (light!) – </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">post tenebras lux</span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">. </span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Revival would occur, (nay it would already be occurring because the Spirit would already be at work), if the Church was to follow that well-known “revival passage” in 2 Chronicles: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-9186059755900218832017-04-16T06:51:00.000+10:002017-04-16T06:56:23.671+10:00OUR RESURRECTION<br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Our Resurrection (in Jesus’ Resurrection)</span></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Introduction</span></span></i></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Have you ever wondered what is so special about the resurrection of Jesus Christ? I mean, it’s an amazing thing for someone to be raised from the dead. There’s no getting away from that. Yes, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a miracle – but Jesus is not the only human being who has ever been raised from the dead, is He? The Lord’s Prophet Elijah raised the widow’s son from the dead. And that was way back in the days of the Old Testament somewhere. And the Apostle Paul brought that fellow back to life – the one who fell asleep listening to one of his sermons. His name was Eutychus. And not only did he fall asleep, but he nodded off a third story window to his death. Paul raised him! And the Apostle Peter raised Dorcas – or Tabitha as she’s called – from the dead. And Jesus raised Lazarus from the tomb, and he had been dead four days! He also stopped a funeral procession and raised the widow from Nain’s son. Then there was the 12-year-old daughter of Jairus whom Jesus raised from the dead. I’m sure if we looked we could find others in the Bible who have been raised from the dead.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">What then, makes the resurrection of Jesus Christ so special? For He’s certainly not the only person ever to have been raised from the dead! Well, that’s what we’re going to be looking at in the following. We’re given a clear statement of what makes the resurrection of Jesus Christ so special in Romans 4:25. “[Jesus] was delivered up for our offenses, and was raised for our justification.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Of this verse Geoffrey Wilson says, “In this brief sentence of profound import and eloquent simplicity, there is distilled the very sum of saving knowledge.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ss4cRhX7Wg4/WPKHmcRU5NI/AAAAAAAABrM/pNsfR8F6KzcN6HeXKmtZjsYX-YawRvxhACLcB/s1600/IMG_6669%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ss4cRhX7Wg4/WPKHmcRU5NI/AAAAAAAABrM/pNsfR8F6KzcN6HeXKmtZjsYX-YawRvxhACLcB/s320/IMG_6669%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Now, above we already have had a look at the first half of this verse. Among other things we saw that our offenses, i.e., sins against God were imputed to Christ on the cross. And we saw that His righteousness is imputed or accredited to us. The cross was the place where the Great Exchange took place. That’s briefly what is meant by “[He] was delivered up for our offenses”. Let’s now focus on the second half of Romans 4:25, “[He] was raised for our justification.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">His Resurrection</span></span></i></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Jesus was raised because of our justification. The New International Version puts it like this, “[Jesus] was raised to life for our justification.” So, there was a reason Jesus was raised from the dead. He was resurrected to justify us. That makes Christ’s resurrection unique, doesn’t it? No one else was raised to justify us, only Jesus! Therefore, not one of all those other people whom God raised from the dead, whom you read about in the Bible, was raised for our justification – only Jesus! But let’s not miss a very important point: God IS able to raise the dead, even you and me!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Now then, what else is so special about the resurrection of Jesus? Well, it’s a really remarkable thing to raise someone else from the dead, isn’t it? But how much more remarkable would it be to raise yourself from the dead? Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” John 2:19. He was of course talking about raising His own body from the dead, wasn’t He?</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp; </span></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Although it was definitely God the Father who raised Him, He still raised Himself. As He says in John 10, “No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So again we see the uniqueness of His resurrection. His was a self-raising resurrection. Think about it, we can’t even pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. But Jesus could raise Himself from the dead, remarkable! But let’s not lose sight of the fact that Jesus’ resurrection is usually ascribed to God the Father in the Scriptures. To be sure, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all three Persons involved in the resurrection of Jesus. However, in Acts 2:24 it says that God raised Him. Acts 2:32 says: “This Jesus God has raised up.” It’s the same in Acts 3:15; 3:26; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30,33,34,37; 17:31. We could go on and on rattling off verse after verse where it says that God raised Him up. E.g., 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:15; 2 Cor. 4:14; Gal. 1:1; Eph. 1:20; Col. 2:12. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Hang on to the fact that God the Father raised Him, for it is important. But the point that also needs to be made is that God the Father must have been satisfied with the work of Jesus otherwise He wouldn’t have raised Him! So we see then that Jesus’ resurrection is the proof that God the Father has accepted the perfect life and death of Jesus Christ as payment for our sins.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">When I first arrived in Australia we used to hear people in shops talking about “dockets”. A “docket” as I discovered, was another word for a “bill of sale” or a “proof of purchase receipt”. Anyway, I was happy to stop talking about “receipts” and start talking about “dockets” like everyone else in Australia. But the point I make is that we believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, don’t we? That, “[Jesus] was delivered up for our offenses, and was raised for our justification.” Therefore Jesus Christ has already purchased our redemption. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Well then, our faith that God has raised Him from the dead is our “proof of purchase”. Therefore, our belief in Christ’s resurrection is our “docket”. If someone asks us how we know we have everlasting life we can say “I have a docket. Jesus Christ purchased my salvation upon Calvary’s cross. And His resurrection proves that I have been saved. And my faith, i.e., my belief that God has actually done this is my personal proof of that purchase!” So, the Christian carries this docket in his pocket with him wherever he or she goes, which is to say that the day has dawned and Christ the morning star has risen in our hearts. Therefore, make sure you have the docket in your pocket – don’t leave home without it! </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">How do you check to see if you really have faith? Well, as the Scripture says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” Romans 10:9. Your belief in God’s raising Jesus physically from the dead, then, is your docket. This belief, this faith that God is able to raise the dead, and has raised Jesus Christ from the dead, indicates that you are among the saved. For, as Charles Hodge positively puts it, “The resurrection of Christ … authenticates the whole Gospel. As surely as Christ has risen, so surely shall believers be saved.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So, it goes without saying that if the resurrection of Christ is not real, then neither is your docket! If Christ was not raised, then your docket is useless. And it would mean that Christianity is a hollow religion – empty as a cheap Easter egg! If we don’t believe in a literal raising of the crucified, dead, and buried Jesus, then we have no docket! Therefore, your faith in Christ and His resurrection is your docket. It’s your proof that Jesus purchased everlasting life for you. It’s your proof that all your offenses, all your sins have been paid for. So, no docket, no refund on the Last Day! That’s God’s policy! Therefore the raising of Jesus Christ from the dead is directly related to our justification.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">If Jesus is still in a tomb somewhere then we have not been justified and our faith is futile and we are to be pitied more than any! And if we have not been justified we are dead along with Jesus – if He has not been raised. But God’s Word spells out in the clearest of terms that God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And, since Jesus has been raised, we have been justified. Therefore, His resurrection IS our justification. So let’s look at a bit more closely at our justification.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Our Justification</span></span></i></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">As we’ve seen, our faith is our proof that we have been justified. The Apostle Paul in the passage of Romans we read earlier demonstrates this. There he shows us the direct link between our faith and Christ’s death and resurrection. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">As you know, faith must have an object outside of us. We don’t believe in ourselves, for that’s self-centeredness, not faith! The object of our faith,&nbsp; just as it was for Abraham, is God – the God who is able to raise the dead. In Romans 4:19 the Apostle says of Abraham, “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” Could you imagine meeting a centenarian and saying to him, “Och! You’re a dead man! You may as well count yourself dead, a hundred years old! You’re already dead!” Well, that’s what Paul under inspiration is doing here with regard to Abraham! </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">But how did Abraham feel about the fact that being a hundred he was as good as dead? Well, the LORD had made a promise to Abraham that he’d be the father of many nations. And, included in this promise was Christ and His work of redemption. For as Jesus Himself says in John 8:56, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So, as good as dead or no, Abraham believed in the LORD! He trusted in Him. He put His faith in Him. As Paul says in Romans 4:21&amp;22, “And [Abraham] being fully convinced that what He had promised He was able to perform. And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’” </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">The faith Abraham had in God is even more remarkable when Sarah is taken into consideration. She’d be about ninety if Abraham was about a hundred. And just as the hundred-year-old Abraham was reckoned as dead, so was Sarah’s womb! Yet the LORD had told them that she would be the one to bear Abraham his offspring! That’s why the Apostle in Romans 4:17 speaks of God as Him “who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So we see then, that Abraham believed in the promise of the LORD and it was “accounted to him for righteousness”. And then in Romans 5:23ff, we see that these words were not written for Abraham alone, but also for us, which is to say that, “Righteousness shall be imputed [or credited, accounted] to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of justification” Romans 4:24&amp;25.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Have you got it? God had given Abraham (who was as good as dead) a docket. And on that docket was written God’s promise to him of everlasting life.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Now, you’ve all been on a train or a bus or whatever when the inspector has come along and asked to see your ticket? The inspector takes your ticket and he validates it, doesn’t he? Well, in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son to validate the faith of His people. Abraham’s docket, his faith was validated, ratified, confirmed, i.e., declared to be legally valid when God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Jesus Christ personally signed every faith docket in His blood. That’s why Christians talk about having faith in Christ’s blood. It’s His shed blood that seals our faith and His resurrection declares it valid. So, in a word, Abraham was justified by faith. The object of His faith was the God who gives life to dead things – even the as-good-as-dead hundred year-old Abraham, including his ninety-year-old wife Sarah with her dead or barren womb! </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">One can only imagine how difficult, humanly speaking, it must have been for Abraham to believe. We have the easier task of looking back to something that has already happened. But Abraham had to strain to look forward to something that was only promised by God. The Apostle says in Romans 5:20 that Abraham was “strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.” Therefore, even though it all must have looked so impossible to Abraham, it was God who was working faith in Abraham.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Abraham believed that God was able to raise the dead. The Scriptures testify to this. For the writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 11:17&amp;18, “By faith Abraham ... offered up Isaac … accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.” This faith then was “accounted to Abraham for righteousness” by the LORD. So this means that God accepted Abraham as righteous on account of his faith, which is not to say that that Abraham’s faith was the ground of his justification. But rather that his faith was the condition of his justification. Therefore if we would be justified we too need to exercise faith – a living faith. And our faith needs to be directed to the God who raises the dead, even Jesus Christ. God raised Jesus for our justification. Therefore we need to believe that Jesus was brought back to life by God in order for us to be justified.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">All that’s left now is to have a look at the meaning of that word “justification”. And as we do so, we need to keep in mind the fact that we are the same as Abraham. Yes, Abraham was a hundred years old, “already dead” as the Apostle puts it. However, before our justification we too in a sense are “already dead!” For not to be justified by God is to be accounted dead in your sins, isn’t it?</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">To not have your offenses against God forgiven is to be already dead, which is to say that you are reckoned as dead by God. Therefore, Christ’s resurrection is also our resurrection. For if God never raised Jesus, we would still be dead – dead in our sins, wouldn’t we? Therefore, as Abraham was already dead, so to speak, so are we until we by God’s grace believe that God can raise the dead!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Can a man actually pull himself up by his bootstraps? Can a dead man pick up the phone and ring the doctor? Well, neither could Abraham (who was already dead) believe God could raise the dead, unless God took the initiative and did something. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Do you see what happened with Abraham? He knew he was already dead. When you get to be a hundred you know you’re on borrowed time, right? Your next breath could very well be your last. Yet God had made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham kept on believing in the LORD. Even though Abraham got to be a hundred, even though his wife was ninety and had never given birth, Abraham kept on believing in the LORD. He kept on believing that the LORD would provide him a son, a Saviour! For make no mistake, Abraham’s family line would have died unless he produced a son. For the LORD did not recognize Ishmael as Abraham’s son. So, Abraham kept on believing in the LORD that he would produce a son. And this belief, this faith that the LORD could give life to the dead was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. Therefore the righteousness Abraham had, came to him through faith. It did not come by trying to be good. So, we see then where we today fit in, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” Romans 10:9.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Do you believe that God is able to give life to the dead? And do you believe that God has given life to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was crucified, dead, and buried? Well then, as He did for Abraham, so God credits your faith in Him for righteousness. Therefore, when we look at the words of Romans 5:25b, “[He] was raised for our justification” we know what is meant. We know that God is able to raise people from the dead. We know that God raised His Son, Jesus Christ from the dead. We know that if we truly believe this, God declares us righteous. Therefore, Christ’s resurrection is God’s proof that He has purchased life for me. And, as a docket, as proof of purchase, God has given me faith in Him. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Put another way, the question is this: How do I know I’m a Christian? Well, like Thomas, I confess that Jesus is my Lord and my God. And I believe in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead! Therefore, His resurrection is my justification.</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Conclusion</span></span></i></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">We have seen that God has raised Jesus Christ for our justification. So let me just remind you what it means to be justified. To be justified is to be acquitted by God. It is to receive an acquittal for the guilt of your sins. God therefore pronounced the acquittal of all believers to the whole world when He raised Jesus from the dead. For the Gospel is to go out to all the ends of the earth. And as it spreads, so does the good news of your acquittal, doesn’t it? The whole world knows that Easter is the day Christ rose from the dead. Therefore, the whole world is getting to hear about your acquittal! For God raised Jesus because of OUR justification – i.e., the justification of those who, like Abraham, believe that God is able to raise the dead and actually did raise Jesus!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”. Our faith is valid because God raised Jesus from the dead! No resurrection, no justification, and our faith is invalid. But He is risen!</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">And if you meet anyone who asks you for proof of Christ’s resurrection you just show them your docket! You tell them in your own words that Jesus is your Lord and your God – confess Him. Tell them that His Father really did raise Him from the dead. Believe in His resurrection. Tell them that on account of His resurrection, the Triune God has acquitted you of all your sins. And don’t forget to tell them that they too will receive God’s acquittal if only they would confess Jesus as Lord, and keep on believing that God has raised Him from the dead.</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Excerpted from my eBook Paving Paradise - https://www.amazon.com/PAVING-PARADISE-Neil-Cullan-McKinlay-ebook/dp/B007SU154U/ref=la_B006NTVAWY_1_11?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492289601&amp;sr=1-11</span></div>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-60153992184182685602017-04-14T11:59:00.001+10:002017-04-14T12:23:50.310+10:00THE GREAT EXCHANGE<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">The Great Exchange in the Death of Jesus</span></span></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Introduction</span></span></i></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">What could be stranger than celebrating someone’s death? It might be understandable if people celebrated the death of tyrant. But Christians celebrate the death of an innocent Man! An innocent Man died at the hands of wicked men, and Christians rejoice! So what does that make us? Well, that’s what we need to look at. We need to look at what the death of Jesus Christ means for us.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Romans 4:25, “[Jesus] who was delivered because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” Commenting on this verse Charles Hodge says: “The two great truths of the Gospel are, that Christ died as a sacrifice for our sins, and that He rose again for our justification.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">In the following we’ll look at the first of these two truths. I want to talk about how the death of Jesus Christ has affected us. We can see that His death is quite different to other deaths. We mourn the passing of others. Yet we rejoice at the death of Jesus Christ. Why? First off, His death means that God no longer holds us guilty for our sins.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">The Guilt Exchange</span></span></i></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">“[Jesus Christ] was delivered because of our offenses.” We need to ask the question: Delivered by whom and to whom? Well, the New International Version offers us a bit of a commentary on this verse where it states, “He was delivered over to death for our sins.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So, we see then that Jesus was handed over to death on account of our sins. If the Grim Reaper actually were death personified, Jesus was placed into his hands. However, it was Jesus Himself who handed Himself over to death, which is to say that He did the Father’s will and sacrificed Himself. But why was it the Father’s will to offer up His Son as a sacrifice? And why did the Son offer Himself as a sacrifice to the Father? Well, we’re told that it was all because of our offenses.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">God did it so that He could justly forgive us our sins, didn’t He? So there’s an exchange of sorts taking place here, isn’t there? Jesus is ransoming Himself. He’s paying the ransom God requires for our sins. What is the price of that ransom? “For the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23a. So that’s what Jesus was doing. He was making an exchange.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">At Calvary, He, as they say in the movies, “made the drop!” To make the drop is to make an exchange. Usually a brief case full of money is “dropped” somewhere for the release of a hostage. However, in the case we’re investigating, Jesus switched Himself for the hostages. He became the substitute for the hostages. But we need to be careful here, don’t we? We need to be careful not to make out that it was the Devil who held us hostage. I mean, there is a sense in which this is true. But Jesus never sacrificed Himself to satisfy the Devil! No, He was delivered because of our sins – but sins against whom? What is it that King David said, “Against You and You only have I sinned” Psalm 54:3. So, Jesus was delivered over to death because of our sins against God. Therefore, it is God who received the payment for our sins, not the Devil.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">As you know, God is a just God, and therefore His justice needs to be satisfied. And the death of Jesus Christ is the proof that God is a just God. Jesus Christ was willing to offer up His life as a ransom for us, and God was willing to receive it. But how much was the life of Jesus Christ worth? His was a perfect life, wasn’t it? His life was worth a whole universe and more in the eyes of God. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">What would you give for the life of your son or daughter? Would you give everything you have? Well, we can see that the life of Jesus Christ was sufficient to pay for the sins of the whole world if need be. His life is of infinite worth on account of who He is. God and Man in One Person, thus, He is a Divine Person. Therefore He is the perfect ransom for you and me.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So, the great exchange took place when Christ faced death, when He died. He went to the cross to make the switch – the Great Exchange. His sinless life for our sinful lives. Our guilt for His innocence. The Apostle Paul puts it like this in Romans 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Did you see the switch? Don’t miss it! God made Christ sin so that we could become right with God in Christ. So the great exchange that took place is this: God made Jesus our sin. And as He did so He made us Christ’s righteousness. As Isaiah says, “And the LORD laid on Him the iniquity of us all” Isaiah 53:6b. So, the place where the Great Exchange took place was at the cross of Calvary. It actually took place upon the cross for all to see. It was done in the open. But it wasn’t until Christ had breathed His last that His end of the bargain was sealed. For remember that the ransom price owed was His perfect life.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So, the death of Jesus shows us Jesus really did have all our sins upon Him as Scripture says. Otherwise, Jesus could not have possibly died. For, as we’ve already stated, “The wages of sin is death.” But Jesus had no sin of His own. He was perfectly innocent of all sin. Therefore God would have no business taking the life of His Son. But we read these words in Isaiah 53:5&amp;10, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him … It pleased the LORD to bruise [or crush] Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin.” </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So, we might say that it was the guilt of our sin that was laid upon Him by God. Therefore, this was a legal transaction that was taking place upon the cross. Our guiltiness was exchanged for Christ’s guiltlessness. He received our guilt and we receive His innocence – His righteousness.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Do you see what happened on the cross? Jesus became a sin-offering when God placed our guilt upon Jesus’ shoulders. Therefore we have no sin because Jesus has taken all our sins away – past, present, and future sins.&nbsp; This means that God can justly declare us innocent because of what He did with Jesus. In other words, God accepted the life of Jesus as a substitute for your life and my life. Therefore, because Jesus died for our offenses against God we no longer need to die for them. We are no longer guilty sinners because God has removed our guilt in Jesus Christ. And, because we do not need to die for our own sins, the Bible says that we now have everlasting life.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">We need to look at this piece of Good News a bit more closely.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CkxfJCRbKVQ/WPAsvP4seRI/AAAAAAAABq4/r4ziuiBYg8kMNooxKmsrQ6KSNgDRlrORQCLcB/s1600/IMG_6659%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CkxfJCRbKVQ/WPAsvP4seRI/AAAAAAAABq4/r4ziuiBYg8kMNooxKmsrQ6KSNgDRlrORQCLcB/s320/IMG_6659%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><br /><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">The Life Exchange</span></span></i></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">To say that you will not die because of your sins is the same as saying that you have everlasting life. For death is the reward or punishment for sin – sin’s wages. Whereas, everlasting life is the reward for righteousness, which is the opposite of sin, sin is the opposite of righteousness and righteousness is the opposite of sin.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Jesus lived a perfect righteous, i.e., non-sinful guiltless life. And He lived that perfect righteous non-sinful guiltless life for you and me, for all believers. Therefore, not only is the Great Exchange a “guilt exchange,” it is also a “life exchange.” At the cross God placed our sinfulness, our guiltiness upon Jesus. And He took Jesus’ righteousness, His non-sinfulness and placed it upon us.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Now, we need to take careful note that this was all simply a legal transaction at this point. We have to be very clear here. Jesus didn’t become a sinner on the cross. He didn’t go through a change of nature and start rebelling against God, and cursing Him as He hung upon the cross. No, Jesus was perfectly obedient to God even to His very last breath. Had He failed and sinned at any point then He too, like us, would need a Saviour to save Him from His sins! </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So, we need to understand that the righteous nature of Jesus did not change. He did not become a sinner. He became sin, i.e., a sin-offering. It’s as Isaiah says, God made His soul a sin-offering by laying our sin upon Him.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Now, likewise, as Jesus had no change in nature during the Great Exchange, neither did you or I at the point where we are justified or declared right with God. This is important, as Jesus hung on the cross God was dealing with our sins, because He had imputed, or accredited, or transacted, or accounted our guilt to Him. It stands to reason that if Christ is your substitute with God, then Christ’s righteousness has been gifted to you because He keeps on representing you before God. Therefore since God imputed our guilt to Jesus, He has imputed Jesus’ righteousness to us. Thus the Holy Spirit is now in a position to apply all the benefits of Christ’s cross to us. However, the great exchange is a legal exchange in that it does not affect the nature of Jesus or the nature of you and me.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">At this point it only affects our standing with God. Jesus, on account of our sins, did not become a sinner, but rather became a sin-offering. The Great Exchange is that He receives our wages (which is death) so that we can receive His wages (which is life). In Christ we share the death we deserve (but He does not deserve) with Him so that He can share the life He deserves (but we don’t deserve) with us. So the cross then is the place where the Great Exchange takes place. It’s the place where our death is exchanged for His life, and His death is exchanged for our life. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">God cannot look upon sin without condemning it, whereas, conversely, He cannot look upon righteousness without blessing it. That’s the nature of a Holy and Righteous God. He curses sin and blesses righteousness. The Scriptures attest to this. Therefore our sin is cursed in Jesus who, because God has imputed our sin to Him, removes that curse from us by His death. Then He is free to bless us with the everlasting life Jesus deserved on account of His perfect righteousness. Therefore, Jesus received our death and we received His life – everlasting life!</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">What a turnaround! What a switch! This is the Great Exchange! Instead of giving us what our sins deserve God gives us the exact opposite! And instead of giving Jesus what His righteousness deserves He gave Him the exact opposite! It’s like the Governor of Texas saying, “Un-strap that murderer from that electric chair and let him go free with a pardon – now strap me in to pay the penalty for his crime.” But, the Governor of Texas does not become a murderer, even though he is dying the death that belonged to the murderer. And neither is the murderer no longer a murderer even though he has now received the life that belonged to the governor. The murderer has simply had his guilt removed and paid for – a free pardon. He is free to live his life knowing that he will not be required to pay for his crime. Why? Because his guilt has already been paid for.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Now, if you’re thinking: “Wouldn’t it be great if that kind of thing happened in the real world?”, then think again. This is exactly the kind of thing that happened in the real world. For Jesus Christ died a real death on a real cross at the hands of a real God! He died for murderers, homosexuals, sodomites, adulterers, drunkards, you name it. He even died for the goody-two-shoes of whom butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths! How do we know this? We know because Jesus died for sinners! And Scripture makes it very clear that all of us are sinners. The well-known verse, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But let me just read a few verses from Romans chapter five, “For while we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So Christ then died only for sinners. Tell me of any true Christian, you know, who is not a sinner! You won’t be able to point to any Christian who is not a sinner. To be sure, God no longer sees the Christian as a sinner on account of Christ’s righteousness. However, this is vastly different to saying that you are not, nor ever were, a sinner! When Adam disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit all mankind became sinners with him. Therefore, all mankind was deserving of death – the wages of sin. But God, by His grace has sent us another Adam, a second Man, the last Adam to perfectly obey Him on behalf of sinners. Therefore, those who know themselves to be condemned sinners sitting on death row also know their need for a Saviour. Christ is the only Saviour. He is the only one who died for sinners. Therefore Christ is the only one who can give us life – life everlasting. </span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">And how is this life, this everlasting life, received? Well, it’s been received the same way ever since our forefather Adam rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. It’s received through the Great Exchange. Scripture uses Abraham as an example. Think about it, Abraham lived at least 1800 years before Jesus. Genesis 15:6, “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” This is what the Apostle Paul is writing about in Romans 4. In simple terms Paul is saying that Abraham’s faith is Abraham’s righteousness. The Great Exchange that took place was that the LORD revealed something to Abraham that was going to take place at a future point, and Abraham believed in the LORD.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">It is through this “believing” in the LORD that the LORD accounts or accredits or imputes to Abraham righteousness. Do you see what’s happening? To paraphrase, the LORD is in essence saying, “Abraham, you know that I have revealed that I am sending a Saviour of sinners. Well, believe also this: He will come from your own loins.”</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Paul informs us in Romans 4:20ff that Abraham did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief. He was fully convinced and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. So we see then, though Jesus died close to 2,000 years after Abraham, Abraham received everlasting life through faith. And so it is for us today, though we live 2,000 years after Jesus died, we too, like Abraham, receive everlasting life through faith.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Both Abraham and we look to the Great Exchange that took place on the cross. It was there that God took away our everlasting death and gave us everlasting life instead. But what good is everlasting life if you don’t know you have it? If you didn’t know you had everlasting life you’d be walking around in fear of judgment. You’d be walking around trying to avoid the whole issue of God and His judgment wouldn’t you? You’d be trying to deny the real God by perhaps inventing a replacement, i.e., a God who won’t judge sinners. Or you might be trying to convince yourself that you’re not a sinner! You might try any number of ways to escape the judgment of God. But the only escape is through faith in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Conclusion</span></span></i></b></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">For us, as it is for all Christians, on account of what Christ did on the cross, we can now live life to its fullest! For Jesus says that He came to bring us life, life in abundance! Therefore we can get on with our lives knowing that all our offenses have been paid for.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">So, for us, life has truly taken on a new meaning. We can see that there is a merciful and compassionate God at the helm of creation, guiding it forward. We can see that there is justice in this universe, because we can see the justice of God. He will not let sin, any sin big or small, go unpaid for.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">And we see this most clearly at the cross. For there God satisfied His justice by pouring out His wrath upon His Son on account of our sin. And also there we see God expressly manifest His mercy by accounting Jesus’ righteous law-keeping to us. Therefore at the cross our death deserving guilt was removed and was exchanged for everlasting life.</span></span></div><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">The cross is the place of the Great Exchange. It was the place where Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses. That’s something to celebrate, isn’t it? Let’s all continue to glory in the cross of Christ and in nothing else! For we have everlasting life because of Him!</span></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;">(Excerpted from my Paving Paradise eBook: https://www.amazon.com/PAVING-PARADISE-Neil-Cullan-McKinlay-ebook/dp/B007SU154U/ref=la_B006NTVAWY_1_12?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492136529&amp;sr=1-12</span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-90948396701462740552017-04-13T13:58:00.001+10:002017-04-13T13:59:54.765+10:00Religion in a Glasgow Pub<span style="color: #1d2129;"></span><br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Religion in a Glasgow Pub</span></b></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Stuart:&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #eeeeee; margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><br /><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">My birthday was coloured by a stranger in a Byres Road pub, where I was having a Happy Birthday To Me Pint of Guinness. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Do you believe in black holes?” he asked. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Why?” I asked, wondering if this was some manner of coded language. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Do you believe in them?” </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">“Well, scientists tell us that stars have imploded, yet their compressed mass retains such gravitational pull that even light can’t escape, thus dark holes.” </span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TLSP9VlpIBc/WO73HzEIEfI/AAAAAAAABqo/31Byer0Am9QHncwdoI5fuBQhVS_KM-JYgCLcB/s1600/IMG_6629%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TLSP9VlpIBc/WO73HzEIEfI/AAAAAAAABqo/31Byer0Am9QHncwdoI5fuBQhVS_KM-JYgCLcB/s320/IMG_6629%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></span></div></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Aye, but do you believe in them?” </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“I’ve never been in outer space,” I told him. “And, anyway, if I’d been anywhere near a dark hole, I wouldn’t be here.”</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“What do you believe in?” </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">I told him, as I must when asked a direct question. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Religion’s loadysh-te,” he enlightened me, “Loadysh-te.” </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">“Right,” I agreed, “loadysh-te.” I left my birthday pint of wallop hardly sipped.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Neil:&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #eeeeee; margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Sorry to hear about the blight on your birthday celebrations. Bigoted strangers, such as the one you encountered, are what give good pubs a bad name! Mind you, I agree with his “religion’s loadysh-te” (read: “religion is nonsense”!) analysis – especially if, (as I did), you develop your view of it from standing on the soggy terracing (or sitting on the bum-wetting seats) of Ibrox (or Parkhead) watching the Saturday football match. </span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">I remember as an eighteen-year-old, for once, actually paying attention to the words of some of the songs and the abuse we were hurling and hurtling (along with mutton-pies and bottles and “refilled!” Tennent’s lager cans) at the opposing green-hooped team and its supporters. Of course, their supporters were reciprocating with vitriol, with vim, vigour and vitality! Thus, the excremental effluvium flowed both ways! “Loadysh-te” right enough! It was King Billy versus the Pope of Rome! Our songs invariably ended with imprecatory curses, usually seeking the demise of the beanied-head of Roman Catholicism: FTP! Enough of this religious bigotry! this sectarianism! “Religion’s loadysh-te” I too thought. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">From then on I became an (albeit adopted) “Son of the Rock” (i.e., a Dumbarton Football Club supporter). “‘M’on the Sons!” (i.e., Sons of Dumbarton Rock). True, Boghead didn’t quite have the electrical-storm-like atmosphere of a Ranger’s game at Ibrox, with its thunderous murderous roars punctuated with the flashes of fiery-darts of taunting chants! Aye, “religion’s loadysh-te” – especially if you grew up in the 70’s like I did on the West Coast of Scotland!</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">As already mentioned, whereas I found refuge from the Glasgow version of “religion” by changing teams and religiously supporting the, mediocre as it was, Dumbarton Football team, your Quantum Physicist pub-pundit seems to have found some solace from “religion” by retreating into a theoretical “black hole.” Each to their own, I say! </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">But what is religion, true religion? Is it about being devoted to one’s own belief-system and expressing your worldview in the hymns of sectarian-song-singing from the stands as you praise your idols? Is it about being so devoted to scientific theories that you feel the need to overtly defend your epistemological insecurities to pub-punters who’re enjoying a birthday beer? Or is true religion about seeking to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever? And, is it about loving God and your neighbour (including pub-patrons!) as yourself?</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">I’m sorry to hear that that “fly-in-the-ointment” left a bad taste in your mouth and put you off enjoying your birthday pint of wallop, your, as you called it, “Happy Birthday To Me Pint of Guinness.” But I am happy, nay, I’m more than happy, I’m very encouraged to hear that you stood up for </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">true</span></i><span style="color: #eeeeee;"> religion and answered the way you did when he asked you, “What do you believe in?” He did the asking! Obviously it was a loaded question. He simply wanted to ram his “religion” down your throat! Well, the positive thing is that this stranger got you to pub-lically confess and profess your trust in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">our</span></i><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Saviour! </span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">May He be pleased to bless you for not being ashamed of Him! And may I be as</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">prepared as indeed you were “to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have… with gentleness and respect.”</span></span><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">I’m so proud to have you as a big brother!</span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-82481866393933599252017-03-27T11:16:00.002+10:002017-03-27T11:16:29.450+10:00PAST HEROES <br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Past Heroes</span></span></b></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">With respect for the dead I walk silently past rows of their ‘tombstones’ in my library. ‘Quiet please!’ I draw closer to read the inscription on a dead friend’s headstone. I am mindful that I now stand in the presence of the humble but great. ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin’; ‘LEX, REX, or The Law and the Prince, Samuel Rutherford’; ‘The Institutes of Biblical Law, Rousas John Rushdoony’; ‘The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer’; ‘Communist Eschatology, Francis Nigel Lee’, among a host of others, pass before my eyes. Yes, they being dead yet speaketh. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QpPV1VEfyqk/WNhnzAUtaBI/AAAAAAAABqQ/jGgq6u2SGiwzdc_4G4DyPU_daeCQ671EgCLcB/s1600/Communist%2BEschatology.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QpPV1VEfyqk/WNhnzAUtaBI/AAAAAAAABqQ/jGgq6u2SGiwzdc_4G4DyPU_daeCQ671EgCLcB/s1600/Communist%2BEschatology.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Speaking better things than the blood of Abel, they were used mightily by God. Past heroes all.</span><br /> <br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">We stand on the shoulders of giants, of men who spoke of Jesus and His Kingdom, His Covenant, as they sought to rebuild society in accordance with the blueprint of God’s infallible and inerrant Word. These past heroes wanted freedom, freedom for each of us as individuals, freedom from the tyrannical whims of popes and princes, and from all forms of unlawful governmental oppression. ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery’ Galatians 5:1. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Paradoxically, it is the Rule of Law that ensures us our freedom. In those nations influenced by Christ speaking in the whole Bible, e.g., in the West, justice is blind, which is to say that no one is above the law. Which Law? As my old professor’s bumper-sticker stated it: ‘God’s Law or Chaos!’ God’s Law teaches us how to love God and our neighbours as ourselves. Take, for example, the 8</span><sup><span style="color: #eeeeee;">th</span></sup><span style="color: #eeeeee;"> Commandment: ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ This applies to governments as well as individual citizens. Governments should not steal by overtaxing companies and individuals. Nor should companies and individuals steal by tax-cheating. With respect to the Decalogue, upon which Western Law is primarily based, in each Commandment ‘One and the same thing, in divers respects, is required or forbidden…’ Take the 5</span><sup><span style="color: #eeeeee;">th</span></sup><span style="color: #eeeeee;"> Commandment for example: ‘Honour thy father and thy mother…’ ‘By father and mother … are meant, not only natural parents, but all superiors in age and gifts; and especially such as, by God’s ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether in family, church, or commonwealth’ Westminster Larger Catechism Q&amp;A 124. It goes on then to list what the Bible says is the honour inferiors owe to their superiors and their sins against them, and what is required of superiors towards their inferiors and their sins against them. It even deals with how we ought to treat our equals. It would seem, that all this is either being ignored or has been forgotten, (if ‘Social Media’ is anything to go by!)</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">Needless to say, that contemporary ‘Culture Wars’ are disturbing the peace, and are causing conflict and confusion as ‘Traditionalists’ and ‘Progressives’ seek to preserve and/or model society each according to their own image. The picture of society my past heroes had, was one in which every individual’s conscience would be bound only by the Word of God. That whether Family, Church, or State, all would be bound by God’s Law, i.e., as it applied to each of these respective spheres. In other words, my past heroes envisaged the principle of being ‘one nation under God.’</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">My past heroes have copies of their books in my library. But better yet, they have their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life! </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-67608189984020306672017-03-16T16:27:00.001+10:002017-03-16T16:28:59.213+10:00OUTBACK<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Outback</span></b></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">I admit that, as a migrant, I was a wee bit confused with the Australian use of the words ‘bush’ and ‘outback.’ To me ‘bush’ meant a small tree or shrub and ‘outback’ was to be found at the rear of a house or building! </span><span style="color: #eeeeee; margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #eeeeee;">I soon learned that ‘The Outback’ is a place beyond the city limits, the outer suburbs, the satellite towns and the remote little villages. The Outback is even beyond, what Australians call, ‘The Bush.’ I suppose the Outback is the Australian version of ‘the wilderness’ in the Bible.</span></span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre is found in the hot deserts of Central Australia. Most of the time it is simply a salt pan with a 450mm (18 in) thick salt crust. However, every few years God is pleased to open the windows of Heaven and pour out His blessing upon The Outback wilderness, filling the lake with water, while ensuring that before it soon evaporates, it will suddenly and mysteriously teem with life above and below. For the Lord inundates it with frantically breeding birds and fish. Even the dedicated souls of The Lake Eyre Yacht Club take advantage of the periodic deluge. I learned that the lake’s smooth surface-water reflects the blue sky so much so that the horizon virtually disappears, causing one club member to remark that it is like sailing in the sky! Wow!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8xwSGTpj_3I/WMowRKzKDUI/AAAAAAAABqA/JxPq7JD76tUiHR54n-hKqKKxABZ8bYjyQCLcB/s1600/IMG_6742%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8xwSGTpj_3I/WMowRKzKDUI/AAAAAAAABqA/JxPq7JD76tUiHR54n-hKqKKxABZ8bYjyQCLcB/s320/IMG_6742%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="171" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">One is reminded of the following verses of Scripture: ‘Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever… The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing.’ Isaiah 32:15-16; 35:1-2a. The picture is one of promised regeneration. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Whether an individual or the Australian Outback, God is able to bring things back to life. He does it by His Spirit. And He does it for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ and His (human) righteousness. How so? Isaiah wrote, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”’ Isaiah 40:3. The Gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke and John apply this to John the Baptizer as he prepared the way for the Lord Jesus. While baptizing at the Jordan River, referring to Jesus, John the Baptizer said, ‘He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.’ John1:33b-34. Mark records John the Baptizer as saying, ‘I indeed baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’ Mark 1:8.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">With the picture of the Outback blossoming as the rose after God pours out His blessings from heaven upon it, let us now put it all together. The Prophet Joel wrote, ‘Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you – The former rain and the latter rain… And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh… I will pour out My Spirit in those days’ Joel 2:23; 28-29. Joel is connecting falling rain with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Thus, John baptizes with water and Jesus with the Holy Spirit.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Who would have thought the Outback could be so interesting?</span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-7008682378339746592017-02-12T12:52:00.003+10:002017-02-12T12:54:21.450+10:00The Summary of God's Covenant of RedemptionThe compilers of the famous Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) spelled out what the eternal triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, had in mind before He created creation. <br /><br />The Father&nbsp;promises to the Son a people innumerable, upon condition that the Son becomes like them in every way apart from their sin, and lays down His human life for them, to redeem them from the just punishment of their sins. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JnIPrKOHido/WJ_NhJfnkcI/AAAAAAAABpo/NZxQ0nnV5iI-gxJi7ULveEb1I9MFvXkIwCLcB/s1600/IMG_7013%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JnIPrKOHido/WJ_NhJfnkcI/AAAAAAAABpo/NZxQ0nnV5iI-gxJi7ULveEb1I9MFvXkIwCLcB/s320/IMG_7013%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="307" /></a></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 96px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 96px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">"The sum of the Covenant of Redemption is this: </span><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">God having freely chosen unto life a certain number of lost mankind, for the glory of His rich grace, did give them, before the world began, unto God the Son, appointed Redeemer, that, upon condition He would humble himself so far as to assume the human nature, of a soul and a body, unto personal union with His divine nature, and submit Himself to the Law, as surety for them, and satisfy justice for them, by giving obedience in their name, even unto the suffering of the cursed death of the cross, He should ransom and redeem them all from sin and death, and purchase unto them righteousness and eternal life, with all saving graces leading thereunto, to be effectually, by means of His own appointment, applied in due time to every one of them. This condition the Son of God (who is Jesus Christ our Lord) did accept before the world began, and in the fullness of time came into the world, was born of the Virgin Mary, subjected Himself to the Law, and completely paid the ransom on the cross: But by virtue of the foresaid bargain, made before the world began, He is in all ages, since the fall of Adam, still upon the work of applying actually the purchased benefits unto the elect; and that He does by way of entertaining a covenant of free grace and reconciliation with them, through faith in Himself; by which covenant, He makes over to every believer a right and interest to Himself, and to all His blessings."</span><br /><br />Excerpted from "The Sum of Saving Knowledge, Head II."</div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-35007742089367582932017-02-02T05:53:00.004+10:002017-02-02T05:54:40.699+10:00Are Trump Supporters Saviors of Western Civilization?<br /><div align="center" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Are Trump Supporters Saviors of Western Civilization? </span></span></b></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">I’m not here to defend Donald Trump. He’s a big boy and can take of himself. However, I fear for the West. President Trump is a real stick-in-the-spokes of the wheels of the Socialist/Progressive Utopia. The media (i.e., most of it), is the propaganda wing of this blight on Western civilization. Fake news IS propaganda, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">false</span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">propaganda. If all I did was watch fake news I fear that I’d become a Trump hater too! </span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Qo4redrrkzk/WJI8nZDHEtI/AAAAAAAABpY/oRyUtHmoIQceE5NA8GASnNeXPPZxUWPoACLcB/s1600/IMG_7065%2B%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Qo4redrrkzk/WJI8nZDHEtI/AAAAAAAABpY/oRyUtHmoIQceE5NA8GASnNeXPPZxUWPoACLcB/s320/IMG_7065%2B%25283%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Scotland has a beef against the mis-reporting (read “lies”) of the BBC, (see e.g., G. A. Ponsonby’s “London Calling”) during its famous Referendum. This is exactly how I see most of the media regarding President Trump. Fake! Spin! Lies! I just love the way Donald Trump pushes, nay, fights back. And so he should. Truth matters!</span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">That’s where my personal interest lies, i.e., truth. It would be nice to get back to politics and the discussing of the same, aye, even heatedly, rather than listening to hysterical ranters who wouldn’t recognize truth if it held a door open for them!</span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">President Trump gives Western Civilization at least some hope of survival. The Left’s (conscious or unconscious) attempt at collapsing the system (i.e., Western Democracy) has itself collapsed on itself (for the moment). </span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Dialectic Materialism, with its </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Thesis</span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Antithesis</span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;"> and resultant </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Synthesis</span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;"> has been stalled by the people who elected Donald Trump. In other words, the Thesis is Capitalism. The Antithesis is Communism. And the hoped for resultant collapse of Capitalism would have been the Synthesis, i.e., Socialist Utopia, wherein, for the sale of your soul, the Government takes care of you cradle to grave. Simplistic analysis?</span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Sure, this is a simplistic view of the Marxist Movement. But why complicate things? Western Democracy (including America) was on the verge of destruction by the Left, through its (Alinskian) demonizing and shouting-down anyone who did not hold its ideology. Many non-Lefties were afraid to speak their minds, lest they be vilified, thereby losing their jobs, business for businesses, etc. </span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Thank God for the privacy of the ballot-box, whereby those that the Political Correctness Movement had silenced, were given voice. In this instance </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">ye olde</span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;"> Edmund Burke adage rang true, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Good people voted. Democracy! </span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">The press is the propaganda-wing of the Left. That is why President Trump (initially) bypasses the press by Tweeting his statements directly to his audience. News straight from the horse’s mouth is better than it first going through the press’s centrifuge. In other words, Trump-tweets take the spin out of his comments! </span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">The electing of Donald Trump as President of the United States, (i.e., the big brother of the rest of the West) gives hope to the survival of Western Civilization, including Australia. Just as the British Broadcasting Corporation was sprung for all its blatant and outright lying to the Scots, to sway them towards retaining the status quo Establishment in its Referendum, so the rest of the Western media, (the ABC in Australia etc., CNN, MSNBC, CBS et al in America) have been weighed in the scales of justice and have been found to be wanting!</span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Freed from the shackles of a media that was shackled to Leftist ideology, such as Political Correctness, demonizing that which does not hold to Leftist ideology, we can now once more start talking about and debating issues. </span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Those speaking in favor of the issue? Say your piece. Those against? Let’s hear you. We’ve sufficiently discussed the issue, now let's put it to a vote. All those in favor? Against if any? The ayes (or the nays) have it. Thus, Western Democracy (but not Alt-Left ideology).</span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Marxism, just like Militant Islam, is a square peg in a round hole. Neither fits into Western Democratic nations. Sure, they can be forced in with a hammer (and sickle or scimitar), but its end result is ugly, not utopia! </span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Marxism has an aversion to private property and private ownership. Ultimately this translates into an aversion of national borders. Likewise, Militant Islam doesn’t believe in borders either. It wants to turn the whole earth into a Caliphate!</span></span></div><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">I for one, am thankful that Lefty politics gave Donald Trump the presidency! Perhaps the Left will get back to working with the right (instead of against it) to build a better Western Civilization, nation by nation, in which people are free as individuals under law, and free from needless government interference and intrusion, which interference and intrusion would be the case if we lived in the fabled Utopia of the Progressives/Socialists.</span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-21654566833867938882017-01-30T19:46:00.001+10:002017-01-31T17:04:34.642+10:00Writers & Movies<br /><div align="center" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">Writers &amp; Movies</span></span></b></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">Many Bible stories have been made into movies, some successful, and some not. I tried once to watch one called ‘Noah’, but was horrified to see how little resemblance it had to the Genesis story! I was left wondering why the writers didn’t stick more closely to the Bible. Of course, not every writer sees the Bible as I do, i.e., as God’s infallible and inerrant Word. Indeed, writers who write books and articles attempting to disprove the Bible’s reliability are legion. Invariable they attempt to show the reader that the Bible is full of contradictions. Then there’s the plethora of writers who convincingly demonstrate the exact opposite!</span></span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-om3Lt_BYvPg/WI8LSKxxxPI/AAAAAAAABpA/-wYp79DcVlQ64r-XsmxMvcuSAaz3Cf4vQCLcB/s1600/IMG_6692%2B%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-om3Lt_BYvPg/WI8LSKxxxPI/AAAAAAAABpA/-wYp79DcVlQ64r-XsmxMvcuSAaz3Cf4vQCLcB/s320/IMG_6692%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">The Bible was written by around forty writers writing over a period of around fifteen hundred years. Beginning with Moses writing the first five books of the Bible around 1400 BC and ending with the completion of the New Testament, probably before AD 70 and the destruction of the Temple. However, Genesis 5:1 needs to be noted, ‘This is the written account of Adam’s family line.’ The words ‘written account’ or ‘the book of the genealogy of Adam’ suggest the possibility that Moses inherited a ‘book’ dealing with the histories of Adam and his descendants all the way down to Noah and the Flood. For, Genesis 10:1 begins differently. There’s no mention of the word ‘written’: ‘Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood'.</span></span></div><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"></span></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">Who, ultimately, were the Bible’s writers writing about? We know the New Testament writers wrote about Jesus, but what about the Old Testament’s writers? Speaking to some Jews Jesus said, ‘You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they that speak of Me’ John 5:39. And, after His resurrection, Jesus spoke to a couple of His disciples on the road to Emmaus, ‘“These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures’ Luke 24:44. </span></span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Thus, Jesus also believes in the veracity of Scripture, and that He is the primary subject!</span></span></span></div><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"></span></span><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">Jesus even referred to Jonah and the fish, that story that is so hard for some to swallow: ‘For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’ Matthew 12:40. And, keeping in mind the ‘Noah’ movie with its invented storyline, Jesus says, ‘But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be’ Matthew 24:37-39. Thus Jesus treated Jonah and the fish, Noah and his ark, the Flood etc., as historical events featuring historical people. Therefore, if </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">you</span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"> are a writer and </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">you </span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">are thinking of writing a screenplay about a Bible story, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">you </span></i><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">ought to keep in mind what Jesus Himself thinks about the Bible, Old and New Testaments and their stories: they speak of Him!</span></span></div><span style="color: #cccccc;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">Why needlessly get Christians offside by false portrayals of Bible stories? But more importantly, why get Jesus offside?</span></span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="background-color: black;"></span>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4305219529879019130.post-82644930432448851592017-01-26T09:44:00.000+10:002017-01-27T10:10:21.368+10:00Robert Burns & Hyper-Calvinism<span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><span style="background-color: #444444;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">There’s no doubt that Rabbie Burns&nbsp; (1759-96) had an aversion to Calvinism. I see this aversion in his own writings. Also, I’ve just finished (re-)reading James Barke’s quintet novelization of Rabbie’s life story, in which he brings out Rabbie’s anti-Calvinism loud and clear. However, it tends to be a caricature of Calvinism that’s being attacked by him – what we theologically-minded folk call “hyper-calvinism”. </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">William Fisher (buried in Ochiltree Cemetery) of “Holy Willie’s Prayer” fame (or infamy) is a prime example of hyper-calvinism (which, of course, has as much to do with Calvinism as Arminianism!) Also, James Barke in “The Wonder of All the Gay World” (the third volume of Barke’s Burns quintet) makes a big deal out of Rabbie supposedly demolishing the morality of one of the Bible’s heroes of faith, ie, King David, (adulterer, murderer etc.) Barke (and maybe Burns himself) seem totally oblivious to the fact that, unlike Freemasonry, Christianity (and certainly Calvinism) is not a system of morality! King David, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses et all are pathetic examples of morality. As am I! These all show our need of a Saviour, ie, that perfect human being, Jesus Christ! In other words, all human beings (apart from Jesus) are immoral. This is what Calvinism teaches.</span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6nr-Jr1LL5Q/WIk4IhrBpPI/AAAAAAAABow/4ci2cbfMCC0IaRTP8hyAyIptW-Gz29anACLcB/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6nr-Jr1LL5Q/WIk4IhrBpPI/AAAAAAAABow/4ci2cbfMCC0IaRTP8hyAyIptW-Gz29anACLcB/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" /></span></a><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Though Burns does seem to warm towards “Daddie Auld”, a Presbyterian minister in Machline, “Holy Willie” (as portrayed by Burns) is a gross distortion of Calvinists. Holy Willie is a straw-man argument that has served to help Calvinists like me get verbally whacked in Scotland! Eg, on two different trips to Scotland, I have been verbally abused by militant Atheists. Upon my being introduced as a Presbyterian minister, they have felt the need to declare their hatred for God while gnashing their teeth and swearing at me – before I have even uttered a word! Also, I was amazed at the way some Scots spit at the mere mention of the name “John Knox”. When pressed, they are unable to articulate why they hate Knox, but only that they hate him! For all that, Calvinist Knox is still one of my Scottish heroes! I’m presently enjoying reading “John Knox” by Jane Dawson, (a book that a friend kindly sent me as a gift). </span></div><span style="color: #eeeeee;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6nr-Jr1LL5Q/WIk4IhrBpPI/AAAAAAAABow/4ci2cbfMCC0IaRTP8hyAyIptW-Gz29anACLcB/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Anyway, back to the subject we are discussing (ie, Rabbie’s aversion to Calvinism). From what I can see, Rabbie never attacked Calvinism! I qualify this bold statement by stating the following: It was that gross distortion called hyper-calvinism that was the subject of the indelible and vitriolic ink that filled Robert Burns’ immortal poison-pen. Therefore, from this Calvinist, kudos to Rabbie for showing the hypocrisy of hyper-calvinism!</span><br /><span style="color: #eeeeee;"> <br /></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">Footnote: To become a Freemason, Rabbie would have had to declare a belief in an albeit undefined Supreme Being to gain entrance into the inner workings of the Masonic Lodge. This declaration qualifies him, at the very least, to be called a Deist</span><span style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee;">.</span></span></span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black;"> </span></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: #666666; color: #1d2129;"> <span style="background-color: #cccccc;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><br /></span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black;">In his “Holy Willie’s Prayer” Burns paints the Mauchline Parish Church’s Elder, William Fisher, as a religious hypocrite. Apparently, he would literally spy through bedroom windows and visit pubs etc., collecting intel (read “gossip”) and report it back to the Church’s Session (ie, Board of Elders), and the local Presbytery (ie, an administrative court consisting of a body of elders and ministers). The hypocrisy is that at times he himself would be guilty of indulging in the debauchery he was condemning. </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black;">In the poem, “Holy Willie’s Prayer”, Burns, while acknowledging Calvinist teachings, (such as Original Sin, Predestination and Election), shows that “Holy Willie” is offside with his Church’s Session and with the Presbytery, when these failed to admonish a friend of Burns, one Gavin Hamilton, for travelling and working, instead of reading his Bible, on the Sabbath. This serves to illustrate that Fisher was in conflict with the Church. Eg, “Holy Willie” prays the following:</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black;">“Lord, hear my earnest cry and pray’r, <br />Against that Presbyt’ry o’ Ayr; <br />Thy strong right hand, Lord mak it bare <br />Upo’ their heads; <br />Lord visit them, an’ dinna spare, <br />For their misdeeds.”</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black;">Fisher viewed Burns and Hamilton as “non-elect”, and as such, and in accordance with his Hyper-Calvinism, had no love whatsoever for them, nor showed any grace towards them, believing that he was operating in accordance with God’s view of them. Hyper-Calvinism does not hold the Calvinist Doctrine of “Common Grace”, which teaches that God’s grace extends to all people that on earth do dwell, and not just His elect. Apparently Gavin Hamilton eventually died in a ditch…</span></span></div></div></div></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Neil McKinlayhttps://plus.google.com/107770568959163658302noreply@blogger.com0